Keep Your Head Down
by Spiritus Rex
Summary: Sorcerers aren't really understood or respected, but if one joins the military, they're respected even less. Merlin Emrys is the newest of the Court Sorcerers of Camelot, and what a time to join too, when someone out there is killing off anyone who strongly opposes magic. Merlin quickly finds himself falling into something dark that is much deeper than he could have ever expected.
1. 1

**AN: Alright, I'm gonna say right off the bat that this story is _heavily_ Fullmetal Alchemist inspired, and so I will largely be drawing upon the military system of Amestris when writing this. I'm not entirely familiar with the military and the way it works otherwise, and so apologize for any mistakes or misconceptions that I end up using. The ranks of each character also might be a bit inaccurate, as I say once again, I'm largely basing this setting off of some major FMA elements. If you know more about military inner workings, then hey, I would genuinely love to hear anything you have to say or share! **

**Military Ranks from highest to lowest (that I have worked out so far, there are plenty more characters I haven't yet placed, but these are just the major ones):**

**General of the Army/King - _Uther Pendragon_  
****Secretary to the King (unsure of actual rank) - _Morgana Pendragon_  
****General -_ Arthur Pendragon_  
****Colonel - _Leon Young_****  
****Lieutenant Colonel - _Gwaine Green_  
****Major/Court Sorcerer - _Merlin Emrys_  
****First Lieutenant - _Lancelot Du Lac_  
****Second Lieutenant - _Percival Fisher_  
****Second Lieutenant - _Elyan Smith_  
****Court Physician (unsure of actual rank) - _Gaius Heahlaece_**

**I'll be working on this story side-by-side with Greatest Need (since Greatest Need is giving me some major plot trouble rn- ughh-) and I'm determined not to leave either story to die! I've got up to four chapters written for this right now though, so hopefully I won't be getting in too deep with posting two stories at once. **

**Disclaimer: I own neither _Merlin_ nor the elements of_ Fullmetal Alchemist_ that I am employing in this story.**

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1: _Bound and Determined_

Merlin Emrys could remember, very clearly, the home that he had grown up in.

It had been small, one floor, with three rooms. A main room, a kitchen, and another, smaller, room that he and his mother had shared. There had been one bed for her, one bed for him, with a window in the middle to let the moonlight through during the nights that they dared to leave the blinds up. His mother had always been so afraid of leaving the window exposed during the night, she was always so terrified that they would find themselves waking to shattered glass as a rock was tossed through into their home. When Merlin had been younger he hadn't understood why people had tossed rocks at their home, or banged on their door, or refused to let his mother and him shop in their stores, but as he grew he understood.

Magic. Magic was the reason.

Magic wasn't outlawed, not like it had been back when Merlin's mother and father had been children, but it still was not really liked or fully accepted. Those who practiced magic found themselves treated to the same rocks and insults as Merlin and his mother, and those born with magic were treated with even more hatred - even though someone having been born with magic had never been heard of.

Merlin's mother had spared him of that higher level of hatred though, and instead took the brunt of the public's insults and scorn. She had had a child with a recognized sorcerer after all. She had consorted with magic, and her fatherless child was evidence of her sin. Though Hunith Emrys had no magic of her own, if you so much as showed sympathy towards those with it then you were as good as a sorcerer yourself. None of the people that lived in the tiny village that Merlin grew up in, Ealdor, knew of the fact that Merlin had been born with magic. Hunith had made sure of that. If they had, well, Merlin knew deep down that despite having never done anything to warrant it, he and his mother's home would have been burned and they would have been run out of town.

Magic was not accepted in this world, but Merlin Emrys strived, almost foolishly, to make it so that it was. He didn't want any family to have to hide and deny the truth in fear of death or hatred, nor the ever rare children born with the gift of magic to think it a curse like he had. That was why he stood before the desk that he did. That was why he was being handed a band of metal that he was to fasten around his wrist. That was why he had, in the words of his mother, given up his soul. All for his foolish quest towards acceptance.

"Congratulations, Major. You're now officially the newest Court Sorcerer in the Army of the King."

Merlin swallowed thickly and nodded, and the eyes of the man handing him the metal wrist band danced with dual parts disgust and pity. With a barely noticeable tremble in his hands, Merlin fastened the metal around his left wrist before he could back out. Heat flashed up his arm as the runes across its clasp burned and melted the metal shut, closing it so there was no seam and no chance of reopening it.

No going back now.

"Have fun being chained to the military." The faceless higher up assigned to give him his binding wristband sneered. Merlin didn't know what exactly to say to that, very much aware that magic was possibly less accepted in the military than anywhere else, despite the fact that sorcerers were welcome to pledge their magic and their bodies to the King as Court Sorcerers. Court Sorcerers were seen by others as attack dogs, brought out to do their job and then dragged back by the neck when they weren't needed anymore. They didn't deserve care or friendship, as they didn't have souls in the eyes of the people, having obviously sold such a thing to be able to do the devil's craft after all. The man before him was obviously mocking him with his words and glare because of this belief, and Merlin smartly only gave a silent salute in response. A beat of silence passed before the man, with a cruel smirk still on his face, dismissed him, leaving Merlin free to spin around and book it out of that stuffy office as fast as he possibly could.

The door shut behind him with a cold creak of wood on metal, and Merlin found his legs shaking as he fought the urge to fall against it and slide to the ground. He had to be strong now, not only because of his new station, but because he had to fight for the rights of his people, and show that magic wasn't something to be feared or hated, that those with it deserved love and compassion just like anyone else.

Something crashed into him and sent Merlin staggering back into the door he had just shut, a door he had had to fight against himself so as not to lean against just as he was doing now. Anger flashed through him, and he shot his blue eyes up to see who it was that had so carelessly jostled him when there was an entire free hallway in which to walk.

"Watch where you're goin', _sorcerer_." Came the growl, as the burly and tanned man that Merlin had crashed into shoved him once more on the shoulder, causing the door behind him to buck and shudder. "Some of us wanna be able to walk through these halls without getting dirty by touchin' the likes of you."

The anger that had flashed through Merlin earlier only burned brighter as the cold wave brought by the insults dragged itself through his veins. Not even a full five minutes after he had been granted his new position in the military, and already he was being discriminated against by a man that held a lower rank than he.

He responded before he could hold himself back, his mouth foolishly running as it so often did in the face of injustice, "Last I checked we were both wearing the same uniform, but I had a shower this morning, which seems more than I can say for you." Merlin pointed out, one hand waving in an all encompassing gesture as if to both point out the other man's stench and wave it away in one go. The man didn't truly stink, but he also looked sweaty and run down, as if he had just ran full speed down every single road in Camelot. His sweaty face turned red right as Merlin gestured to it, and before the smaller boy could even think over what he had said, the hand of the burlier man was fisted in his collar, choking him as it lifted him up just enough so he had to stagger on the tips of his toes.

"What did you say to me?" The threat behind the dark tone was obvious, daring Merlin to reply despite the fact that he couldn't. He gasped and spluttered, blue eyes wide and fixed on the face of his assailant as the fight and cheekiness of earlier drained out of him. The man smirked victoriously, eyes still narrowed, before he threw Merlin back against the door. The wood once more buckled and shook as Merlin's back connected with it, but no one came out from the office to check if he was alright, and no one came down the hall as he cried out when the other man's fist met his face. Seemed this guy liked wearing rings, unfortunately for Merlin.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

Then, after spitting disgustingly at Merlin's cowed form, he was gone. The man that had insulted and choked Merlin without any prompting or previous grudge was walking down the hall, hands in his uniform pockets, casually as if nothing had happened. Merlin hadn't even known the man's name, and now he was left gasping on all fours, throat red and a rough cut across his cheekbone dripping blood. No one came out into the hallway, no one came to see if he was alright. Merlin picked himself up from the floor all on his own, his heart cold as the realization that this was his new life began to sink in. Not even in the military, where he was granted a high ranking of Major upon entering, could offer him any security. Hopefully he wouldn't get insulted or beat up every day, but though Merlin was an optimist, he wasn't an idiot, despite the bruise on his cheek that said otherwise.

He'd just have to work his way up until hatred against other human beings wasn't acceptable or overlooked anymore. He'd just have to stick it out until something came of his sacrifices.

The hallways were quiet and empty as ever as the newly appointed Court Sorcerer made his slow way down them, giving Merlin hope that the fact that no one had walked by and seen the abuse happening to him hadn't been just people turning a blind eye, but had been due to the fact that next to no one walked the hallways at all. Everyone was hard at work in their own offices and branches of the building, and were obviously far too occupied to be walking the halls frequently enough so as to stop one-sided fights.

The woman that stood dutifully at the front desk seemed rather wary as he approached, despite the goofy smile Merlin gave her to try and ease her nerves. It was sad, but understandable, and Merlin pushed past the twisting in his chest that hadn't gone away since the moment he had put on the metal band in order to speak to the woman.

"Uhm, hello," Her name tag glinted before him; Elaine Corbenic, "Miss Corbenic. I was told that I'd uh- That I'd be given a dorm room?"

Elaine Corbenic, with her back stiff and fingers curled, jolted at the sound of his voice, which likely sounded as wary as she felt, and turned to look at the records and not at Merlin. "Ah…" She hesitated, and glanced at him from under her brown fringe as she fingered through what looked like a recent list of all those who had joined the military recently. "Are you… uh… Merlin… Em-reez?"

Merlin couldn't hold back the wince at how the woman's inexperienced tongue twisted the letters of his last name. All the profound power of the Emrys line seemed to be reduced radically any time a non-magic user tried, and failed, to speak around the name's graceful sounds. "It's pronounced 'Em-ris,'" He smiled kindly to show her there was no harm done, but Elaine only looked faintly annoyed, as if the thought that he would dare to correct her on how to say his own name was appalling, "But yeah, that's me."

A key flew through the air, and Merlin all but scrambled to catch the unexpected projectile before it crashed to the ground. "Room 842 is yours, West wing, top floor." Merlin nodded, head bobbing once in understanding, before he thanked her and scrambled away. Only after he had left the main command building and was walking down the stairs did he realize what a sight he must have been for the poor woman, a Court Sorcerer with blood still dripping from their face, tall and thin with choppy black hair and sharp blue eyes. No wonder she had been wary of him.

"Well," Merlin hung his head dramatically with a sigh, both hands clutching his key to his chest, "Next time I come in I'll have to make sure I don't have blood on my face."

Next time he came in, he'd have to keep his long sleeves rolled down so as to cover the metal on his wrist as well.

There was no going back now though, Merlin Emrys would never be able to return to the home he shared with his mother. The single one room dorm that he unlocked the door to was testament to how much had changed. The open window echoed with each burst of wind through it the same words that he had been repeating to himself since he had decided to take the test to become a Court Sorcerer of Camelot.

There was no going back.


	2. 2

**AN: Hopefully, posting chapter 2 a day after posting chapter 1 will garner some attention. ;D like: hey, pssst, read my story. haha (I'm also doing this because I'm procrastinating on studying - which basically means I'm bored out of my mind - and can't even begin to look at Greatest Need right now.) **

**In this chapter, most everyone else who has an important roll comes in (Minus Morgana, Uther, and Gwen. Though they'll be along shortly.) **

**After this I'll try and update either every week or every other week. This story has really been just flowing easily for me so far, but usually around chapter 6 or 7 my brain starts to slow and all the ideas of what I want to do get all tangled up. I think the reason it's flowing so easily is because of how FMA based it is. I used to write FMA stuff all the time, and merging some elements from it with Merlin was probably the greatest thing I could've done to break down any creative-block I had. **

**Responses to reviews from Chapter 1:**

_**Felicity P - Thank you very much! I can't wait to see where I take this too haha  
**_

_**Said the Liar 13 - Thank you! This chapter will kinda introduce how I'm planning to incorporate everyone else, so yea. And yes I shall! **_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll - hHaah yeah i know this idea just kinda sprung up. I'm glad u like it and are interested amiko! thank ya!**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any elements of FMA that I incorporate into this story.**

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2: _Sought After and Examined_

Arthur Pendragon, despite being the highest ranking officer in the military next to the king, testament to his work ethic which was unlike any other, did not appreciate nor like the workload that came with each new morning. He had barely stepped through the door into his team's office before he knew, with just one glance, that he wouldn't be able to walk through the room until he got to the door that led to his private office without being confronted by at _least_ one of his men.

"Well, look who's finally up."

Ah, of course Gwaine Green, with his sharp eyes and sharper tongue, would be the one to call attention to him first. He obviously had no qualms about pointing out the sleepy form of Arthur as he did his best to sneak - with pride - around the perimeter. It was days like these, when Gwaine's begging voice as he asked to be given time off to go to the bar grated on his ears, that Arthur questioned himself as to why he even requested the man be promoted and moved into his private team in the first place.

Arthur responded to Gwaine's exclamation with a grunt of acknowledgement, and attempted to just keep walking through without incident. He wanted to get to his office, shut the door, and bury himself in that workload he had been griping about not appreciating. Reports and paperwork were the best distractions when it came to ignoring his team of slacking friends or ignoring the bigger issues going on out in the city that he'd most definitely have to see to sooner or later.

"Aw now don't run off princess!" Gwaine exclaimed as Arthur made an obvious beeline for his office door. The youngest Pendragon watched from the corner of his eye as the other man stumbled out of his chair and nearly fell to the ground in an effort to get up and block his way, the other members of the team already rolling their eyes in time with Gwaine's antics.

"Not this morning, Gwaine, let me pass." Arthur said through gritted teeth, having no patience for such antics now. Only just last night he had been up until practically dawn, dealing with things that he hadn't wanted to get involved with, having to look over and over again at gruesome pictures of-

"Where's your smile this morning' Arthur. I thought you'd be excited to hear the good news." Gwaine's expression, though he still had that ridiculous and wide smile plastered there, became serious. An odd quiet spread through the room, and Arthur thought mockingly that it certainly couldn't be _good_ news if it garnered such a reaction from his hardened team of "knights."

With a sigh, Arthur relaxed his shoulders and fixed the usually laid back man before him with a firm gaze, the gaze of a commanding general ready to hear anything. "What is it?" Everyone else in the room held their breath. They obviously all knew what Gwaine was going to say, and were waiting for Arthur's reaction to whatever it was.

Gwaine, for all his talkativeness, hesitated only a moment before responding seriously, "A new Court Sorcerer just joined yesterday." The Lieutenant Colonel shrugged casually before continuing, "I was wondering if you'd want to meet him, seeing as he's probably going to stay stationed here in central Camelot. Heard he got near perfect scores on the written exam, and above perfect on the practical. Judging by your dear old dad's reaction, he's gotta be the most powerful little guy around these parts since Balinor." Gwaine's eyes were sharp, and Arthur realized now why it was Gwaine telling him this news and not his second in command, Leon. Gwaine was sympathetic to sorcerers and magic users, not to mention he was far better at gathering information surreptitiously. The new sorcerer probably hadn't even woken up yet to receive his assignment and already Gwaine was obviously hinting to Arthur to have him stationed in with their team. It would certainly be good to have - by Gwaine's words alone - such a powerful sorcerer on their team, but Gwaine had been forgetting one little detail when telling Arthur all of this.

"I don't deal with Court Sorcerers, Gwaine. You know I've never liked magic users. Let the new kid be handed around a bit. If it becomes _absolutely necessary_ for me to get involved in his assigning, I will, but until then," Arthur jabbed his finger into his friend's chest, and though the action was somewhat to lighten the mood, Arthur's next words were serious and full of authority enough to remind everyone of who they were in the presence of, "Stay out of it."

Arthur recognized the look on Gwaine's face, the look that let Arthur know that he was going to disobey. He'd probably be dragging the sorcerer to the bar for a drink by the end of the day, despite the danger and the fact he'd be going against a higher officer's direct order.

Apparently, the other men around them recognized the look on Gwaine's face too, and as Gwaine sat back down at his desk, one Leon Young fixed him with the most authoritative glare he could. It wouldn't do much though. After all, if Arthur couldn't control Gwaine, Leon didn't have a hope of enforcing something that Gwaine was already planning on going against. Lancelot, Elyan, and Percival all seemed to accept this, and though Lancelot threw Arthur an imploring glance, they all knew nothing could be done.

"Make sure you tell us the bloke's name at least after talking to him then." Arthur grumbled in defeat as he yanked open the door to his long sought after office sanctuary. He closed it firmly on the sight of Gwaine's beaming smile.

Only once the door was closed did Arthur give into the exhaustion and weariness he felt. With one hand rubbing at the bridge of his nose, he made his way to his desk and the files stacked there. Now, on top of all the other investigations he had to conduct around the city in search of the maniac of the month, there was that new Court Sorcerer, fresh to be dealt with. The poor sorcerer didn't know just how much he had added to Arthur's workload simply by existing.

"_Judging by your dear old dad's reaction, he's gotta be the most powerful little guy around these parts since Balinor."_

For once, though this kid had added to Arthur's headache, the general somewhat wished he had gone to oversee the newest sorcerer's examination, if only to see his father's face twist in one of those rare moments of shock. Anyone who could gain a reaction like what Gwaine described from the King of Camelot certainly had to be powerful.

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Merlin woke up the next morning when his head hit the floor. In a discombobulated, somewhat frenzied, effort to drag his upper body back onto the bed, he and gravity ended up dragging all the blankets down to the ground. He only managed to shout blearily, his mind still foggy with sleep, "What's happening-!" before the mattress came next, the flimsy thing flipping when the covers yanked on its edge. Within five minutes since waking, Merlin found himself twisted in his blankets and buried beneath an oppressive mattress.

For a moment, Merlin merely laid, dazed, beneath the mound that gently crushed him as awareness came to him slowly. The previous day's events filtered themselves into his mind and took their place amongst his other memories. He remembered the test, the metal wristlet, and the key to the dorm he now was slumped on the floor of. Remembering brought with it none of the pain of a life lost that he had thought it would, and as Merlin carefully disentangled himself from the blankets, he realized that this was because he had already accepted his new life. No use lying around, the boy mused as he pushed the mattress off of him and stood so as to have better leverage to wedge it back onto the bed frame. He'd have to stick it down with a bit of magic to prevent himself from waking up crushed on the ground again, though he doubted that the way he woke this day would ever be able to be repeated.

A sharp knock at his door drew Merlin's attention away from the wayward mattress. He glanced at it for a moment, tongue sticking out between his lips in thought, before he shifted his hands and allowed for his eyes to gleam gold. His magic quickly righted the mattress and spread the wrinkled blankets across it with all the precision and care that a maid would use, all while Merlin straightened his shirt and walked to the door, both dreading and excited to see who was calling on him the first morning after his enrollment in the military.

The door opened to reveal a man wearing the same crisp uniform as all the other soldiers. His shoulders were straight, his right hand cocked in a salute against his forehead, and he did not look Merlin in the eyes.

"Major Emrys, the Court Physician requires you right away, sir. He said that somehow you were overlooked when he was doing physical exams for all Court Sorcerer applicants, and that despite the fact you are now a certified Court Sorcerer, you still need to be looked over before you can proceed with your duties."

Merlin blinked in the rush of words the lower ranking officer fired off at him, and he let the words register in his mind for a quiet moment before straightening his own posture and nodding in response, "Thank you, uhm, can you go let him know that I'll be on my way there soon?" He wasn't used to ordering other people, and he had a feeling other people wouldn't like to be ordered by the likes of him, but it was unavoidable in the end and would certainly take some getting used to. The other soldier simply nodded though at Merlin's request - for it certainly wasn't an order what with the weak and questioning way he said the words - crisp and sharp in all his movements as he lowered his arm and spun around back to the hallway. It was only after the clacking of the uniform boots had faded and Merlin had shut his dorm room door that he realized he hadn't even asked for the Court Physician's name or where he could be located. With a groan of frustration he let his head thunk heavily against the door, his tousled hair flattening against the wood and blue eyes shutting at the pain that the action unexpectedly sent through his head. Perhaps a visit to the Court Physician would end up being more beneficial to him in the wake of the scuffle he had been caught in yesterday, rather than something tedious that would take time out of his day.

He stumbled awkwardly away from the door and over to his trunk, which sat, locked shut, just beneath the only window in the dorm. Merlin had thought he could use the trunk as a kind of window seat after he had emptied it of his belongings, organized them, and put them away in the closet and dresser that the dorm room had come with. Open windows and the freedom to look out them without fear was something Merlin had always coveted of others, and now that he had a high up window on the top floor of a military building, he wasn't about to let the opportunity pass him by.

After he had washed up and gotten changed into his new uniform - making sure he had the sleeves rolled down this time - Merlin left his room locked behind him, keys in his pockets and band-aid on his face, ready to hunt down the Court Physician.

Elaine did not look happy to see Merlin when he entered the building, not at all. She glanced up only once from the papers spread across the front desk before her face twisted and she directed her attention back down just as quickly. Merlin, satisfied that he at least wasn't bleeding this morning, walked over with a semblance of confidence and waved gently to get the woman's attention. She huffed and looked up at him just as warily as she had yesterday, and her voice held thinly veiled annoyance as she asked, "Yes, can I help you?"

Merlin nodded, began to speak but tripped up on himself, coughed once into his hand, and then tried again, "Yeah, could you direct me to the Court Physician?"

A finely manicured hand gestured to the hallway to Merlin's left. He nodded in thanks just as he noticed the golden plaque with the words "COURT PHYSICIAN" stamped on it, just above a carving of an arrow pointing the same direction as Elaine's hand had.

Merlin breathed in and grinned, thankful that he wouldn't have to go searching through the entire building and ultimately get lost in his search, "Thank you!" He called back to Elaine as he left her sitting at her front desk. She only grunted in response and went back to her work, but Merlin hardly noticed or cared.

Perhaps, despite its unorthodox start, the day would turn out alright.

"Ah, hello?" Merlin breathed as he cracked open the door to the Court Physician's office. Then, all hopes for a good day were dashed to pieces. The man within the room started at the unexpected sound of Merlin's voice, and clumsily toppled backwards from a high ladder he had been standing on to reach some books on a higher up shelf in the back of the room. Merlin wasted no time in throwing the door open fully then, his eyes flashing gold as he slowed the old man's descent and simultaneously pulled the patient bed from the side of the room to catch the falling physician.

The bed groaned when time sped back to normal as it caught the man, just as the man groaned in reaction to the impact. Merlin took a step back as the physicians eyes all but spun to pinpoint him, and suddenly he found himself on the other side of an interrogation before the physician had even climbed out of the bed.

"What was that? Did you just use magic?"

Merlin, shocked, nodded honestly, and then remembered where he was. No longer was he a little boy who could be condemned for such actions, now he was a _soldier. _A Major no less!

He snapped his back straight and saluted, not meeting the physicians eyes as he spoke, trying to sound as official as possible, "I'm Major Merlin Emrys, sir, the new Court Sorcerer. You requested my presence here this morning for a physical examination."

The physician looked shocked, but shook himself after a moment and smiled almost kindly at Merlin. "Come now, my boy, no need for that," he gestured at the stiff stance and salute that Merlin still held, "especially not after you saved my life!"

Merlin didn't bother to mention that it had been him who had started the physician into falling, and as he lowered his hand he wisely stayed quiet and waited for the man to continue.

A withered hand was offered peaceably to him, "I'm Gaius Heahlaece."

Ever so slowly, Merlin relaxed his salute and took the hand that was outstretched towards him. It felt warm and small against his longer fingers, and Merlin made sure to grasp it firmly before Gaius could decide that he was done humoring the sorcerer and would pull back with a sneer of disgust. But Gaius didn't do that, and only smiled in understanding at Merlin's mildly shocked expression before he released the boy's hand gently and turned back to the displaced patient bed.

"Now, if you could help me move this back to its place." Gaius gestured at the bed with an artfully raised eyebrow, and Merlin, still somewhat shocked at the easy acceptance from the man, nodded and stumbled as he scrambled to shove at the edge of the bed.

He could feel Gaius' stare on his back, and knew the man was most likely wondering why he wasn't using magic to fix the bed back into its place easily. Merlin didn't speak or explain himself as he manually moved the piece of furniture, and once it was back where it belonged, he stepped to the side and waited hesitantly for the physician to give him orders or begin the exam he had been summoned for.

"Now," Gaius said, voice still kind, "Let's get this done with then."

* * *

Merlin stepped out of the Court Physician's office feeling somewhat disoriented, his right hand rubbing against the metal band on his left wrist. Gaius had seemed trustworthy and accepting, and Merlin could certainly see the older man becoming somewhat of a friend or father-figure in the near future. It wasn't often that he took to people so quickly or easily, having grown up knowing that any moment, his magic could cause people to betray him or lie to him.

He continued to rub at the metal on his arm, remembering the moment that he realized Gaius wasn't like other physicians - or even other people. The man had taken one weary look at the band before sighing and patting Merlin's hand in a comforting gesture, as if he understood all of Merlin's reasons behind that wristlet, before he had admitted quietly "_I usually like to do the exam before they put this infernal thing on. Can't be helped now though I suppose. Be aware that this monitors every moment you use your magic though, and sends a report through the runes and magic used to make it to whoever your current commanding officer is." _

Merlin _hadn't_ been aware, and his shock had said as much to the old physician. He had been absolutely horrified at the idea that his magic was monitored, and even more so at the idea that his magic wasn't even his to do what he could with. The horror passed quickly to make way for embarrassment though, the tips of his large ears reddening at the thought that some higher up had looked over at the report that morning and seen that Merlin had used his magic to right a fallen mattress. Gaius had squeezed his shoulder firmly, he was an open book, and then reassured the boy that his magic was still his to do with what he wanted, but the metal band was merely a precaution and a way to monitor the Court Sorcerers. It was nothing more than that.

To Merlin, the band suddenly felt heavier and hotter than it had when he had first put it on. Because now he knew what it meant by that he could never take it off. It was a clever trap to keep eye on people with magic that dared to think they could hope for acceptance and change through the military. Clever and _sickening_.

So dazed was he that as he walked down the hall, thumb rubbing rhythmically - almost hypnotically - against the metal on his left wrist, he didn't notice the man that passed him by. Not until a large, worn hand clamped down upon his shoulder at least. Merlin jumped half a mile in the air at the sudden touch, and pushed down the burn in his eyes as his magic jumped to his defense. The cut on his cheek throbbed as thoughts of getting beat up in the hallway by a man wearing the same uniform as he did flashed through his mind, and he stood as straight and confidently as he could bear while the hand stayed firmly on his shoulder. It felt like a vice choking him, but he didn't waver, didn't breathe, as he waited for the other soldier to speak.

"Hey mate, you wouldn't happen to be the new Court Sorcerer would ya?"

The metal band, that he had been playing with only moments ago, _burned_ like a brand upon his wrist.


	3. 3

**AN: Alright! I'm posting chapter three super early becaaaaause 1) the response for chapters 1 and 2 was pretty great. Lots of follows and favorites and reviews and oh maaan i just smiled every time i saw a new little alert. Thank you all so much! and 2) because I'm going to be going away to be a junior counselor at a camp, and we aren't allowed to use phones or internet while there. Call this an experiment, but I wanted to see the kind of response I'd get if I wasn't constantly checking the traffic graph, haha**

**Responses to reviews from Chapter 2: **

**_Said the Liar 13_ -_ yep you'd be correct! haha Gwaine is always to the rescue though, especially in canon. :O and hey! You should totally check out FMA then. It's a really fantastic show with a lot of deep morals and action. Thanks a ton for the reviews and things! _**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll - Arthur is DEFINITELY the Mustang of the group. (actually, when writing a lot of this story I kept accidentally typing Ed or Elric instead of Emrys and Mustang instead of Arthur- ghfhgh) Answer to question - probably no Freya or maybe just past mentions of Freya :( Thank you for the review!_**

**_rebel lion75 - Thank ya very much! :D _**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any FMA elements I am employing in this story**

**WARNING: Descriptions of decapitation, but not the actual act.**

* * *

3: _Met and Suggested_

Gwaine had known sorcerers and magic users to fall into either two categories, either they hated the world and wanted nothing to do with anyone, or they were skittish and fearful, slow to trust others and slow to open up. The boy he held down with his hand on one thin shoulder seemed to fall into the second category, having jolted as if electrocuted when Gwaine's hand had barely touched him, and now standing there looking stiff and ready to take a punch. Even if the boy hadn't reacted in such a way, Gwaine really couldn't see him as falling in the first category either. His blue eyes were wide and young, and the Lieutenant Colonel knew that any form of hatred would look ugly and out of place on that friendly face.

"Hey mate," He said casually, trying to ease the boy out of the state he had worked himself into. Really, Gwaine didn't like to think of himself as someone to be feared - except for by his enemies - and this boy really needed to relax before he worked himself into a heart attack, "you wouldn't happen to be the new Court Sorcerer would ya?"

He had been searching since the morning for the new sorcerer, trying to gain insight as to if the rumors were true and he really was as powerful as they all were saying. Arthur had "ordered" him to keep his nose out of such business regarding where the kid would be assigned or as to how he would be influenced, but really, Gwaine had known from the start that whether the sorcerer had been bitter or not, he'd be a great asset. Sorcerers should always be kept close, whether for security, or to keep an eye on them. Gwaine decided that both reasons could apply in this situation.

The boy spun out of his grasp then, hand going up in an inexperienced salute, and he nodded once. "Yes sir- just joined yesterday." He said, obviously with more confidence than he felt. Gwaine smiled widely and slung an arm around the thin shoulders, startling the boy once again and prompting him to drop his salute. It had been oddly easy to find him, but Gwaine certainly wasn't complaining.

"Welcome to the rat race then! Gwaine Green, at your service kid, and what might you be called?"

"I'm... Merlin. Merlin Emrys, sir."

Gwaine's smile became genuine, and, with one arm still slung across Merlin's shoulders, he offered his other hand to the thinner boy to shake. "Nice to meetcha Merlin, and ey, don't call me sir. I'm not as stuffy as most of these pompous higher ups, really. Gwaine'll do just fine."

Merlin felt like he had been tossed into some odd dream world. Yesterday he had been spat at and looked down upon, and now today he had two people shaking his hand and extending their friendship out to him. It was fantastic. Ever so slowly, a grin worked its way across his face, lopsided and hesitant but a smile all the same. Gwaine accepted this and nodded, congratulating himself on a job well done. Arthur had told him to leave the kid alone, let him be assigned and shuffled into the vein of sorcerers that were used as weapons and disregarded as people, but now that he had met the boy - Merlin - well, he'd have to do some string pulling now. Merlin had something about him, some sort of spark that Gwaine was able to pick up on almost instantly, and Gwaine knew that if the boy were to be treated the same as all the other sorcerers he had ever seen or met, he would become category 1 very soon. It no longer was about keeping the sorcerer close and on hand, and now was about keeping a kind-hearted soul from being tossed about like trash.

"So Merlin," Gwaine continued, already thinking over in his head a plan to get the boy out for a night on the city to get him to open up a bit, "Have ya met anyone besides me yet? I'm tellin ya, there are some real characters around here."

Merlin nodded slowly, and gestured back at the hall he had just been coming from, "I've met Doctor Heahlaece." He said, pronouncing the tongue twister that was the man's last name with no trouble at all. Gwaine blinked at this, before guffawing loudly and suddenly, startling Merlin once again.

"You're the first person I've known that can say Gaius's last name on the first try without slipping up. Everyone else just calls him Gaius. What's your secret?" Gwaine said as he carefully began to walk again, pulling Merlin with him. The boy took it in stride and walked in time with him, obviously not paying attention to where they were going. He certainly was a lot more trusting in the face of a warm smile than other sorcerers, Gwaine observed, as the shoulders beneath his arm shrugged.

"Well- I honestly don't think that's really his last name." Merlin admitted, "It's, ah, it's the language of the Old Religion-" The language of magic, Gwaine noticed, going quiet and listening attentively now. He wasn't very well versed in the language that sorcerers used to channel their magic, though he really should have made more of an effort. Intelligence was useless if one couldn't translate or interpret it. "It means 'physician' actually. I thought he just had an obvious sense of humor."

Gwaine nodded in understanding, letting the words sink in before he himself shrugged. There had been an awful lot of shrugging going on that morning. "Well, Gaius has been through a lot. I for one am not surprised that his name is possibly _not_ his name." He peered at Merlin in mock suspicion, exaggerating his movements in an obvious joke, "Your name isn't some weird Old Religion word too is it?"

Merlin chuckled and shook his head eyeing Gwaine jokingly back, "Nah. A merlin's just a bird, but Emrys is welsh for 'immortal.'"

The pair continued walking, with Gwaine subtly leading the way, their voices echoing in the empty hallways around them.

"Immortal, huh? That'd be neat if it were true."

* * *

When Arthur next opened his office door, the room beyond was far more empty than it had been when he had shut himself in. Gwaine was noticeably absent, along with Percival and Elyan. Arthur could guess where Gwaine was, and Elyan was most likely off having lunch with his sister, Guinevere, as he did most days. Percival was a quiet, wall of man, and if he and Lancelot weren't hanging out together then his whereabouts were almost always a mystery. Lancelot and Leon were the only two of his team still there and still making an effort to stay focused on their work, an effort that Arthur truly appreciated. Their current case wasn't an easy one to deal with, by any means, but Arthur tended to take crazy serial killers running rampant through his city a little personally.

There had been three victims so far, with no visible connections between them aside from the way they had been killed. An older woman, a middle aged woman, and a teenage boy. They had been- Arthur threw a glance over his shoulder at his desk, glaring at the folder that so innocently held the pictures of bloody bodies he had had to commit to memory. They had had their heads chopped clean off, no blood was drawn unnecessarily, none of them had been tortured beforehand, no parts of the three victims were missing. Just a simple chop and run. That was probably what made the case so infuriating. There were no leads as to motive or who the murderer could be. Intelligence was turning up nothing, other than the fact that the older woman had been one of those proud anti-magic folks who demanded the imprisonment and execution of anyone who dared to dabble in such a "dark art." But the other two, as of yet, had shown no inclination towards magic, positive _or_ negative. If they had been against sorcerers, they certainly hadn't proclaimed it from the rooftops, which still set them widely apart from the older woman and her undoubtedly loud presence.

"Alright there, Arthur?"

Arthur blinked, and pulled his mind from the case to realize that he had been standing, hand still on the door handle, in the open doorway from his office to the main office room. Lancelot was looking up at him curiously from his desk, but Leon had been the one who had spoken, standing at Arthur's left side as if ready to catch the prince should he unexpectedly crumble. Arthur Pendragon certainly did not _faint_ or _crumble_ though. He was a pillar of strength, both mentally and physically. However, he did appreciate the fact that his friend would be there for him if he were ever to fall.

"Yeah, I'm fine." _Thank you. _The gratitude was there in his unspoken words, and Leon, interpretative and attentive as he was, picked up on the message easily. He clapped a hand reassuringly on Arthur's shoulder - everyone in their team was very much aware of how cases such as this one ate away at their general - before moving away back towards his desk. Lancelot looked uncomfortable in his place as Leon sat down next to him, but then again, the man always seemed uncomfortable when inactive. He was one of those hero types, the man who jumped to his feet at even a hint of danger, gun already loaded and ready to take out the threat. Next to Arthur, First Lieutenant Lancelot Du Lac was probably the one that the serial killer case grated on the most. It was hard, seeing the pictures and knowing that the bastard was still out there adding bodies to the count, and being unable to do anything.

Arthur sighed and strode across the room, heading for the door that opened to the hallway. He had a meeting with his father and sister in a half an hour, and though it was still a half an hour away, one could never be too prepared when dealing with Uther and Morgana Pendragon. Morgana had been ecstatic when their father had granted her the job as his secretary, and she took the position extremely seriously, becoming almost more of a tyrant than their father was. Any bit of paperwork that was to go to Uther went over her desk first. The same went for phone calls or meetings that one wanted to have with the King. Morgana took care of it all, and practically ran the country itself. Though Arthur would be the one promoted to General of the Army and become king when Uther passed, it still managed to irk him from time to time how much influence Morgana - merely as the _secretary _of the king - managed to have over Camelot.

"Keep up the good work you two, and let everyone else know when they get back that we're all going to have to meet up to go over the current situation sometime this afternoon." Arthur said as he jerked the wide double door open to the empty hallway, ready to step out of the office and let the pictures on his desk fade from his mind for the next half hour until he had to report all the grisly details to his father.

"On the clock or off the clock, sir?" Leon called out behind him.

Arthur stopped, one foot over the threshold, and one foot still holding him captive in the work zone. "... Off the clock. Lance, I'm assigning you to make sure Gwaine doesn't try and run off." An amused "Sir" came from Lancelot, "5 sound good to you two?" Office work hours officially ended at 4:30, so a group of soldiers talking in hushed tones at 5 o'clock would simply look like a spillover from work rather than a covert meeting.

He still hadn't turned, but could hear Leon scratching the note down on a page in the small notebook that everyone knew he had in his back pocket at all times, "Sounds perfect, sir."

Arthur nodded sharply to show his gratitude, and then finally stepped out into the wide, empty air of the hallway. He remembered back when he had just started out in the military, shoved from the nest and told he couldn't ride his father's coat-tails everywhere in life, when the hallways had been bustling with men and women who chatted amicably between work shifts and assignments.

The silence was abruptly broken by a shout of "Hey! There he is, the big man." Arthur turned to see Gwaine striding down the hallway towards him, dragging a stranger by the arm as if he were a dog on a leash. Metal glinted on the stranger's left wrist. Ah, so he _was_ a dog on a leash after all.

"No time, Gwaine." Arthur grumbled as he started walking and didn't stop, passing his friend and the sorcerer by. Gwaine practically screeched to a halt, head whipping around to watch the back of Arthur's lead away from them.

"Where's the fire, mate?" Gwaine asked with a chuckle in his voice. Arthur didn't grace the joke with a verbal response, and instead waved one hand dismissively in the air just before he turned a corner and was out of Gwaine and the sorcerer's sight.

"Well he seems like an ass." Came a distant mutter in an unfamiliar voice.

Arthur practically lunged back around the corner - an act that was entirely unprofessional and unbecoming of a man of his rank - a dark glare set on his face as he met eyes with Gwaine's new "friend" almost instantly. The boy's blue eyes went wide and his back snapped straight in respect under the general's glower, and Gwaine glanced between the both of them before laughing loudly. Neither man seemed to pay the laughing Lieutenant any mind though, as Arthur stomped towards the lower ranking _sorcerer_. He always stuck to the philosophy that one should deal with only one idiot at a time, and Gwaine would just have to wait.

"You can't address me like that." He snapped, growing even more annoyed as he realized that the boy was as tall as him, if not taller, despite being thinner and obviously younger. Arthur could immediately tell that the boy hadn't grown up in the city. He looked entirely out of place, thin form swimming in the Camelotian uniform and an abundance of empathy in his expression. This new sorcerer was definitely a country boy. Probably a small town to boot, and an even smaller family. "What's your name?"

The boy glanced very quickly and hesitantly at Gwaine, undoubtedly already relying upon one of the only friendly faces he had met probably since coming to the city. He responded confidently though, and Arthur couldn't help but feel a little bit of respect for him. The boy had spirit, he'd give him that.

"Major Merlin Emrys, sir."

Arthur stared the boy down, "Stay out of my way in the future, _Major_. Else you'll be learning how to walk on your knees." He clapped a hand against his gun, which was safely strapped to his side, in an obvious threat, and watched with satisfaction as a bit of fear crept into the wide blue eyes of the man before him. Normally, Arthur would never be this bitter, but the stress of the case and his upcoming meeting with his father had been grating against him in the worst way the entire morning. The fact that Gwaine had gone against his orders and sought out the new "powerful sorcerer" was just the icing on the cake.

If Gwaine, one of his own men, wouldn't listen, maybe this newbie could be intimidated into staying away.

Arthur spun on his heel then and stalked away, back around the corner he had turned before he had been insulted, hoping he had made his point clear.

"..._definitely_ an ass."

"I knew there was somethin I liked about you, Merlin."

Or maybe not.

* * *

"You're late." Morgana hissed between tight, upturned lips as she shut the large double doors behind Arthur with a _click_. Her dark hair fell in waves down the back of her freshly pressed suit of the day, a dark crimson jacket buttoned professionally over a white collared blouse with a crimson pencil skirt to match. Arthur nodded subtly, his own mouth twisted into a warm smile, but his eyes vowed to tell her the details later. Now though, King Uther Pendragon was sitting at the far end of a long rectangular table, waiting with tapping fingers for his son and daughter to sit on either side of him.

Arthur pulled Morgana's chair out first, allowing her to sit down with ease before he walked around behind his father to his own space. Uther simply eyed his son with narrowed eyes, but thankfully waited till the younger man was seated before he began to speak.

"So Arthur, how's your team?"

Arthur barely kept himself from gritting his teeth. Despite all the other topics that the king should have asked about, he had asked - once again - about the group of men that Arthur dared to trust with his life. It was no secret that Uther thought many of those men unfit for military duty and unprofessional, if not due to their background then to their behavior. He was constantly baffled as to why his son, a high ranking general, would associate with such _rabble_.

"They're fine father. We've run into a bit of a stalemate on this latest case, but it's nothing we can't handle." Arthur responded smoothly, leading the conversation away from his friends and to a topic that - while more difficult and unappetizing to think about - would be able to hold a fact based conversation.

Uther waved off Arthur's attempts though, "Yes I know about that case," Arthur's smile strained, "Now, has there been any news of what Cenred is doing? Essetir has been oddly quiet lately." Uther pinned his son with his cold gaze once again, and Morgana threw Arthur a sympathetic glance behind the king's back.

The general sighed, but shook his head, all too prepared for the disappointment that filled his father's expression, "No, sire. As you said, things have been quiet. I'll have someone from Intelligence look into Essetir's state of affairs though and gather some intel."

Uther, satisfied with this answer, leaned back in his chair with a nod. He turned to Morgana in the next moment, easily engaging her in a conversation about certain duties or events she was managing for him that Arthur would have to take up until he became King. Arthur took the opportunity to begin picking at the food laid before him - he hadn't even noticed when the servants had set it down - while surreptitiously listening to what his father and Morgana were conversing about. Paperwork came up frequently, as well as proposals for laws pleading to end the discrimination of those with magic. A common plea, Arthur thought with a snort, one that Uther Pendragon would continue to ignore. It was a miracle in itself that Uther had allowed magic to be legal in the first place, never mind attempting to get him to loosen the reins he had over it.

"Arthur, what do you think of the issue?"

Arthur looked up from his meal, blinking and pressing his lips together as he realized that he hadn't heard the last few words spoken. He shrugged noncommittally, "I'm sorry father, could you repeat that?"

Uther's jaw tensed only slightly, "It was nothing." It was obviously something. Arthur heard the tone of his father's voice and braced himself, "If you have better things on your mind and cannot even be bothered to pay attention, then perhaps this meeting should be adjourned for the time being." Adjourned almost certainly meant specifically that Arthur was dismissed, because there was no doubt that Morgana would be hanging back to continue to talk and eat with their father. Ignoring the venomously victorious smile that Morgana shot his way, Arthur nodded and stood from his chair to salute the king.

He had never really liked these "meetings" anyways. They were always quiet and awkward as both Morgana and Arthur either fought for their father's approval or simply grimly accepted his disapproval. Either way, neither of them ever came out on top - despite Uther's obvious favoring of Morgana - and usually left the room full of food but empty of pride.

"Thank you for your time, sire."

Morgana's cold smirk followed him from the room just as it had welcomed him.

* * *

"Alright, so what've we got."

These were the meetings that Arthur preferred. Meetings that felt dangerous, but somehow managed to hold more information and get more work done than work he would do in a week of meetings with his father. Arthur had returned to the office tired, but had smirked upon seeing Gwaine sitting with his arms crossed. A quick salute to Lancelot had everyone smiling and the mood sufficiently lightened - despite what they soon would be discussing - and then they had relocated themselves to the secret, restricted access to only Arthur Pendragon, Round Table room. No one but the members of Arthur's team knew that the small office, with nothing but a large round table at its center, existed, and that was exactly what they wanted. Hidden right under the king's nose, the Round Table room was debugged and unknown, perfect for surreptitious, often times less than legal, discussions.

Percival spoke up first once each man had settled into their seat, setting Arthur's folder of pictures of the crime scenes at the center of the table. Elyan looked away at the sight of the young woman with her head completely severed, a look of fear still etched onto her face. Leon also looked slightly pale, having grown up with Elyan and Gwen since their mother had worked closely with his family, and he certainly had a soft spot for the spunky girl. Though Elyan and Leon had leaned away, Gwaine and Lancelot leaned forwards so to get a better look and possibly discern some info from the dark images. Percival breathed out slowly, "Magic was used."

Arthur frowned heavily and sat back against his chair. Of course magic would be involved, when was it ever not? "Keep going." He said with a slight gesture of his wrist.

Surprisingly, Elyan swallowed and turned back to face the pictures. Arthur knew the man was too close to the case, what with a younger sister the same age as one of the victims, but his extensive knowledge on almost anything that he had gained while stationed around the country had proved useful in some of the oddest situations. He couldn't afford to leave even one member of his team excluded in cases like this where people's lives were on the line. "The places where their heads were severed don't match with the blood patterns, and there's no drag through the skin anyways. Just like with bullet wounds, a knife or an axe would have an entrance and an exit." Elyan leaned away, looking distant, "but these... It's like it came from the inside, from all angles at once."

Arthur rubbed his temples, trying to push away the headache that had started when that skinny little major called him an ass. He wasn't successful, "If there really is magic being used here at least it explains why we're having a tough time catching this guy." Magic would wipe the trail clean, clear fingerprints at a snap of the fingers, wipe the memories of possible witnesses. His mind churned with possible solutions or courses of action that could be taken before more people became victims.

Thankfully, Leon seemed to be on the same wavelength as the general, and he braced his elbows on the table and leaned forward with hesitance in his eyes, "We could set up a few secret anti-magic zones in dangerous areas..."

Arthur immediately shook his head. Anti-magic zones would be ideal, but they required sorcerers to etch the runes and activate them, "No, I don't want to get more people involved than is absolutely necessary. We don't want the city to go into a panic. Not to mention if the news of us secretly setting up anti-magic zones gets out, we'll have to do a lot of damage control." Magic users would not like that _at all_, and people against magic would only use the existence of the zones as more reasons for how magic should be banned. Leon nodded in understanding and leaned back, taking his weight off of his elbows. Silence fell over the group in the wake of Arthur's words, as each mind twisted and tried to think of an alternative to the idea that had just been shot down.

A slam echoed through the small room as Gwaine lunged from his seat, hands on the table where they had been slapped down. He was grinning widely and breathed in to speak-

"No."

"Aw c'mon!" Gwaine blurted, smile dropping and shoulders hunching. "You don't even know what I'm going to say."

Arthur stared at the long haired man, nonplussed, his headache returned and throbbed against his eyes, "If it has anything to do with that idiot sorcerer from earlier, you can forget it."

Gwaine smirked and pronounced easily, "You're just upset cause he called you an ass," Lancelot hid a smirk behind his fist, Percival grinned and eyed Arthur from the side, "Twice." Leon snorted but apologized quickly, but still was grinning as the rest of Arthur's team were.

Arthur wasn't grinning. "He's not under my command, Gwaine."

Gwaine's smile didn't fade, "He told me this morning he's under the temporary command of Colonel Ector, and you two are good buddies ain'tcha? I'm sure he'd lend you his new sorcerer for this quick, quiet, job."

Arthur's frown deepened, "We can't be sure we can trust him."

Gwaine shrugged, "That's a chance you've taken before."

Abruptly, Lancelot leaned forward onto the table, physically inserting himself between Gwaine and Arthur and cutting off their heated staring contest, "Sorry, but, who're we talking about?" He asked sheepishly, though Percival, Leon, and Elyan nodded in agreement with him.

Gwaine sat back down in his seat, looking both like the cat that ate the canary and a victorious war hero all at once. "The new Court Sorcerer I was talking about. He's this skinny little bloke named Merlin Emrys. I met him this morning when he was leaving Gaius'. He looks scared out of his mind most of the time but when we encountered princess here-" He gestured to a very frustrated looking Arthur, "he displayed that he was an excellent judge of character."

Percival smirked at Arthur again and the general's face went _red_.

"Fine!" Arthur said, standing with a jolt from the table. None of his meetings this day had been going in his favor, and it was frustrating that he seemed to be losing more and more control. What with his father and the royal stick that was always wedged firmly where the sun didn't shine, and now with Gwaine suddenly deciding that he should run the team and pull in every lost puppy sorcerer he saw. All this happening right when there was a magical mad-man running around his city was just perfect as well. The next few days of the week were not looking to be good ones. "You'll be in charge of him and making sure he keeps quiet then." He didn't need any more stress looking after a boy unused to the military's ways, "I'll send a formal note to Kay tomorrow requesting his assistance on this case, but that's _it._"

Honestly, Arthur could recognize that this boy's appearance and coincidental meeting with Gwaine was somewhat of a god-send. They needed as little people as possible knowledgeable on their inner workings, and if just this _one_ boy was powerful enough to set up anti-magic zones for them, well, that cut down on the time that would have otherwise been taken to catch the murderer by a _lot_. Arthur didn't want to think about that now though, didn't want to admit that Gwaine and his god damned stubbornness and tendency to take in strays was _right_.

"Back to business now," He snapped, sitting back down heavily and pressing a hand to the picture of the adolescent boy with his head half way across the street from his body, "have we pinpointed a motive as of yet?"

In the sudden stillness and serious mood that had dropped over the room, a quiet, solemn shake of a head was his answer, but it spoke volumes.


	4. 4

**AN: Okay, when I got back from that camp I said I was going to be at, with no internet or phones, I was completely floored. So many new follows (at least 7 wh a t wow omg) and reviews! Thank you all so much, honestly. I was really surprised by how quickly people are taking to this story. It makes me so happy that people are enjoying my writing again. I had forgotten how gratifying and how much one can improve their skills and confidence through writing fanfiction. I was debating waiting a little longer before I posted this next chapter, but then I decided to just get it out quick. After this chapter though I'll be going on a short (SHORT!) Hiatus - maybe a week or a week and a half - for both Greatest Need and this story in order to get ahead on writing them. After that, you all can expect regular updates! **

**Responses to reviews from Chapter 3: **

**_shelle-ma-belle: ahh see this is one of those things that I honestly have no clue about. I'm not very knowledgeable on how the military works - american or otherwise - and am entirely basing how the military in this story operates off of how the Amestrian military from Fullmetal Alchemist operates. In FMA, there are at least two instances in which the military got involved in serial killer cases; the case with Barry the Chopper, and the case with Scar. Based upon those instances, I decided that the military would really only honestly get involved if there was a threat to their soldiers or to the central government, and seeing as how this mysterious be-header has nestled themselves close to the heart of Camelot, I think that would be reason enough for Arthur or any other military official to be assigned to take care of it. For this story specifically, Arthur assigned himself and his team to the case because he feels obligated to protect his people - and also because this is a Merlin fanfiction haha. thank you for your review and woooow this was a long response- hope it helps clear things up though for anyone else who was thinking the same thing! _**

**_one-blacksheep-girl: thank you! I'm not going to divulge my entire plot, but no, I'm not going to follow the actual storyline of Merlin. this story is going to be something on its own entirely, but will still contain a few of the main ingredients and plot points from the Merlin canon here and there. _**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll: haha, I couldn't leave out their first meeting. Honestly, it went so perfectly in the show, so I had to do what I could to adapt it. In a lot of AU fics it always seems to be that people forget that Arthur and Merlin did nooooot like each other at first. The FMA character types thing is going to be a little hard to break out of ahhh ;;; Yup! Gotta wait! Thank you amikoo!_**

**_Virebax: oh wow thank you! your review was the first i saw when I logged back on, and your genuine investment made me super happy. I'm glad you like my writing, and I'm so sorry that you have so many questions - but hey, like you said, as the story goes on hopefully more and more of them will get answered! :D _**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Merlin nor the elements of FMA that I employing in this story.**

**_WARNING:_ Bloody description of decapitation and a murder scene, but not the actual act of decapitation.**

* * *

4: _Angry and Feared_

_Click._

_"..."_

_"...Do they suspect anything?"_

_"Nothing."_

_"Good. Proceed with phase two tonight then."_

_"With pleasure."_

_Click._

* * *

Arthur was down at the crime scene before the head of the military police had even finished speaking. His uniform was rumpled in a way that was unprofessional and not normal for him at all, but really, it was better than could be expected from how he threw it on his shoulders and dashed out the door. There had been a distinct tense note in the head of police's voice, something Arthur knew was rare for the broad shouldered, stoic faced man. It had definitely been the work of their mysterious be-header, but judging by the tenseness Arthur had heard, there was something different about this victim that had gone beyond the other murders and had sent the case to a whole new level.

The previous three scenes had been clean of blood, sans the splatter beneath the body of whatever unlucky soul had fallen prey to the killer. There had been no splatter or smears leading to or from the scene, or any blood on the nearby walls.

As Arthur entered the alleyway, he immediately saw the blood on the grimy stone wall at the very back. It was fresh and wet, gleaming in the morning sunrise a deep and terrifying crimson. Even more horrifying was the fact that the smeared patterns formed words.

_'END THE FEAR'_

A chill danced down Arthur's spine, but he kept his face impassive as he stopped walking not even three feet from the body. A soldier that knelt by the feet of the victim looked up, as if to reprimand Arthur for getting too close, but stopped with a gaping mouth as he noticed who stood before him.

"G-general, sir!" The man said, springing to his feet and into a salute. Arthur said nothing, merely glanced at the man, and ever so slowly the salute fell away. "We uh- we didn't think you would really respond, sir." The soldier admitted slowly and skittishly, but admitted none the less, "We thought that you would send Colonel Young or Ector in your stead."

"If something involves the safety of my people, then I will always respond." Arthur said honestly and firmly, turning his face down to the severed head that lay at the base of the alley's back wall. The body was laid out in such a way that it functioned almost like an arrow, open neck pointing to the bloody words and the head that laid in the direct center upon the cold ground below.

"Give me whatever details you figured out before I got here." Arthur said as the soldier shuffled away and the head of the military police stepped up beside him. The man dwarfed Arthur in size, with his broad shoulders and imposing figure, but there was no doubt as they stood side by side who it was who was stronger, and who commanded more respect.

With a nod the man began to speak, "The victim was found at around 4:52 this morning, when someone's dog sniffed out the blood while they were taking an early morning walk." Arthur glanced to his watch, it was 5:23. "We don't know how long the body has been there, but the blood on the back wall hasn't dried, so it was fairly recent. I've made a call to pull some dogs and guns to comb the immediate area and the branching off streets."

Arthur grimaced. Dogs and guns, or rather, sorcerers and military policemen. Even though Court Sorcerers had the rather high rank of Major, they were still at the beck and call of anyone who decided their skills were needed, and in this situation the head of the military police had decided their skills were certainly needed. Though for Arthur and his team, this complicated things. They couldn't have other people dragging sorcerers in and then have those sorcerers stumble upon their, not yet set up but soon to be present, anti-magic zones. The case was quickly escalating, and if too many sides got involved - the military police, his team, his _father _- Arthur knew they'd all end up tripping over themselves and letting the murderer run free while they fired bullets at their own soldiers.

"Next time, don't pull any sorcerers without my consent or confirmation. I'm the one heading this case's investigations, and I'll be the one to give the orders. Also, I want anything that your men find to be reported directly to me. Anything and _everything_. Don't pass any info over any desk but mine." Arthur said strictly, nipping that problem at the bud. The head of police saluted him in understanding of his orders, though his squinty black eyes held a light in them that made Arthur feel somewhat wary. He'd have to be on the lookout for further insubordination it seemed. If he froze the policeman's access to the Court Sorcerers' services though, that would raise more questions than simply letting things be would. Already Arthur was treading on thin ice by not allowing the use of sorcerers in the investigation and demanding all information be sent _directly_ to him. He'd have to be watching himself and the moves of his team as well then so as to make sure they didn't end up looking too suspicious while digging into this case.

A car rolled up at the mouth of the alleyway, effectively creating a barrier between the street and the crime scene. To Arthur's extreme relief, Leon stepped from the back and began to stride towards him. The relief died when Morgana stepped out as well, Leon holding the car door from her as she thanked him with a pretty painted smile. The wicked witch of Camelot was here, and she looked ready to snatch up Arthur's hopes of keeping his father effectively out of the way, with her heals that clicked on the cement and her suitcase that she held at her side.

"Good morning, Arthur." Morgana said sweetly as she and Leon, who was walking a step or two behind her, stopped before him.

Arthur raised an eyebrow and gestured to the bloody mess behind him, "Is it?"

Morgana's face twisted as she looked upon the body like it was a great fat slug that had no business being there, and she dropped the act, "No, I suppose not."

"What are you doing here, Morgana?" Arthur asked with narrowed eyes, he glanced once at Leon, asking him the question as well. Really though what he should have asked Leon was how he got roped into driving Morgana over to the alley in the first place. Leon shrugged, looking very much like he'd like to go back to bed.

A few military policemen came over and began to rope off the body, pulling out tape and attaching it to the walls so that no one could contaminate the scene. Arthur, Morgana, and Leon all fell away from the area easily, walking back to the mouth of the alley way. There was no information lost from not being able to see the scene with their own eyes. None of them would have been any good at gaining information from the angle that the head had fallen or the direction that the blood had splattered, not like the people that had actually been hired for such reasons.

"I had been at the main command building, working early, when the head of police called my desk asking if father would allow the use of some of his Court Sorcerer's on this early morning search. Couldn't waste any time that would let this maniac get away after all." Morgana said as they walked, uniforms passing them going the opposite direction. Arthur grit his teeth at the information. It wasn't the man's case nor his call to bring sorcerers in, and if Arthur hadn't already shot him down, he'd do so again.

"He was not at the liberty to make that call." Arthur said tensely. Morgana waved a dainty hand to cut him off.

"Oh I know. I knew that this was the case you've been so uptight about recently, so I told him I'd see if there were any off-duty at the moment, hung up, and then came down myself to see if you were throwing a tantrum about this." She smiled at him then, the kind of antagonistic, victorious smile that you only give to a sibling when you're trying to goad them into overreacting. Arthur took one look at that smile and found himself at a crossroads - thank Morgana for preventing any unnecessary sorcerers from poking their noses around, or strangle her for equating his disapproval of a man's unapproved orders to a childish tantrum.

"Well, I didn't throw a tantrum. So it looks like you came down here for nothing." The general snapped. Morgana raised an eyebrow, and Arthur just frowned heavily back at her. Leon coughed subtly from behind them, and broke their eye contact. Arthur felt a bit of deja-vu, and quietly resolved to avoid getting into such heated and absorbing arguments in the future. Both he and Morgana turned to the bearded man questioningly, and Leon wasted no time in saying what was on his mind.

"Sorry for the interruption, but on the topic of off-duty sorcerers, there is one that we would like to request be transferred temporarily into our team for the duration of this case." Good ol' Leon, always going for the goal. Arthur still disapproved of the rough plan that Gwaine had all but shoved down his throat, but his point was often null when the rest of his team all agreed on something he disapproved of.

Morgana's eyes had lit up though in curiosity, and she glanced with a smirk towards Arthur as if she knew his thoughts. Arthur never missed a chance to make it clear how much he disliked working with sorcerers or new soldiers, never mind anyone who fell in the center of that little venn diagram. "Oh? Who might that be?" Arthur snorted at the tone of her voice. Like she didn't already know.

"Major Merlin Emrys, ma'am."

Morgana's eyes widened oddly. Alright, maybe she hadn't known.

"_Him_? You're requesting the help of Merlin Emrys?" She glanced to Arthur questioningly, "You are aware he just enlisted two days ago, right? He's had no prior military experience or training _at all. _Father only agreed to let him be a Court Sorcerer because the level of power he showed at the exams _dramatically_ eclipsed his lack of military background."

Now it was Arthur's turn to widen his eyes in surprise, and he saw Leon do the same. He had been unaware that the boy had simply walked into his rank with not even any training, and finally understood why it was he was under the _temporary_ command of Colonel Ector. Someone that powerful had to be kept close - likely Gwaine's intention as well. He had been so adamant about seeking out the boy. He had even told Arthur that he'd seemed more powerful than even one of the most powerful sorcerers the military had ever had, and yet Arthur had thought about that fact for only a few seconds before brushing the boy's potential aside. Somehow, hearing Morgana say it, someone who was rarely impressed, made it sink in. Temporary so as to keep him on a leash, but easily movable to anyone who needed a powerful weapon at any given moment.

Arthur nodded, since Morgana's gaze was still on him, questioning him, trying to figure out what he was planning. "Yes, him." He stated simply, leaving no room for argument. Morgana's eyes darkened, but the questions were still there, swimming in those green depths. He'd be getting an earful later, for sure.

"I'll see what I can do."

* * *

It was 3:00 on the next day, an hour and a half before the work day ended, when the large double doors of the office creaked open. Gwaine was the first from his chair, an easy smile on his face as he bounded over to wrench the door to its full angle and pulled the man beyond into a completely unprofessional headlock, "Merlin! Fancy seein' you here, friend!"

Merlin let out an odd yelp and pushed at Gwaine's arms which were fastened tightly around his head. The tips of his ears went slightly red as he noticed the other men within the room, each sitting at their respective desk and watching him and Gwaine in amusement - and maybe unease? Gwaine yanked on his neck and dragged him forwards, causing Merlin to yelp again and stumble as he tried to remain standing. He was clumsy on the best of days, and having the taller man lean his entire weight on his shoulders wasn't doing him any favors.

"Well, I think some introductions are in order." Lancelot spoke up, bracing his hands upon his desk and standing from it. He nodded and saluted Merlin as the younger man was released from Gwaine's stranglehold, and spoke while smiling kindly, "First Lieutenant Lancelot du Lac."

Leon stood next, saluted very casually, and then offered his hand to Merlin. They shook as Leon spoke, "Colonel Leon Young." Lancelot and Leon had started a sort of domino effect then it seemed, as after they had relaxed, Percival and then Elyan finally stood and saluted similarly.

"Second Lieutenant Percival Fisher."

"Second Lieutenant Elyan Smith."

Merlin was forever grateful that all the men seemed to be of the open-minded sort. Even if he had detected a hint of resentment from Elyan - the way he spoke, held himself, didn't look Merlin in the eyes - the rest seemed to lack any hostility, despite the silver band that peaked out from under his uniform sleeve.

Gwaine's clapped a hand on Merlin's shoulder suddenly, and Merlin once more wobbled, "Your turn." Gwaine said with an undertone of gentleness that seemed odd for the roguish, loud man. Merlin appreciated it though, and as soon as the hand left its place on his shoulder he snapped to a salute before the team he'd be working with during whatever case it was they decided to call him, a newbie, in on.

"Major Merlin Emrys. It's a pleasure to meet you, sirs."

Then the door at the back of the room slammed open.

Merlin jolted at the dramatic sound, eyes spinning to meet the face of the man who had entered so suddenly.

"How's the knee walking coming, Major?" Arthur taunted as he stepped out from his own personal office into the group office of his team. He was slightly annoyed that Morgana had never told him _when _Merlin would be notified of his transfer and would arrive, but the annoyance was quickly replaced with satisfaction as he was able to startle the younger man with his - unnecessary - slamming open of the door. Arthur was far too proud to ever acknowledge to even himself that he had been listening through the wood for the perfect moment to enter. That would have been childish.

Merlin's eyes narrowed slightly and his lips pressed into a thin line, but he held his salute, "Sorry for earlier, sir. My conduct was unfitting as a lower ranking officer and I promise that nothing similar will happen in the future." He said simply, as if reciting from a book, not sounding sorry in the slightest. Arthur snorted and pushed gently around Elyan, coming to a stop in front of Merlin. For a moment, he merely stared Merlin down, much like how he had done when they had first encountered each other, before his hand flashed out and latched around Merlin's left wrist.

Merlin hissed as the hand squeezed his wristlet almost painfully tight, and fought the urge to pull back as Arthur lifted the band, and Merlin's wrist, up into his line of sight. He looked as if he were merely examining the metal, lips pursed and shoulders shrugged, before he dropped the limb unceremoniously. "Just remember where your place is." Arthur said as Merlin rubbed at his wrist, gaped, and stared with wide eyes at his now commanding officer. The entire room had gone silent, and had been during the whole exchange, each man watching the dangerous exchange. It was unlike Arthur to be so cruel. His men had gotten used to him as a commanding figure, worthy of respect, but they had never really been around to see him when he was dealing with Court Sorcerers.

"_You know I've never liked magic users." _Now, they could all see how much of an understatement that was.

Gwaine looked a tad bit mutinous, and so Leon decided that he would have to be the one to keep the fragile peace. He snatched up the pale manilla folder from his desk and then stepped forcibly between Arthur and Merlin, vowing to apologize to the general later. Now though, they didn't need any guns firing, Leon glanced to Gwaine - who already seemed attached to the young sorcerer - yes, they certainly didn't need any guns firing today.

"Here is the summary of the case that we are requesting your, ah, specific skill set for." Leon stated professionally, extending the folder as if it were an olive branch, hoping the boy would take it and push his emotions aside like a good soldier was supposed to do. Merlin nodded while he lowered his left arm, pulling down a bit more the sleeve of his jacket awkwardly with his fingers, and accepted the folder with his right hand. He pulled out the note that summarized what his role would be almost immediately, glancing over it quickly. Ever so slowly, a frown formed on his face.

"...You want me to put up some anti-magic zones, sir?" He said, directing his question deliberately towards Leon, ignoring Arthur as the blond rolled his eyes behind his second in command's back. Leon nodded, and Merlin's lips twisted into an expression of discomfort, "I'm not very good with runes, Colonel. My magic is a bit more instinctual and protection oriented. Shields and offensive things that don't require conduits." He admitted, gently shutting the folder and glancing down to the floor. Merlin was deeply uncomfortable with the notion of having to set up areas against magic, when the goal he strived for was the exact opposite. He hesitated before speaking again, "You may want to find someone else more qualified for such a task."

Merlin attempted to pass the folder back into Leon's hands, but Arthur's hand reached around and yanked it out of the air before it could complete its journey. "No, sorry." Arthur said, shoving the folder back at Merlin's chest. The sorcerer stumbled backwards from the force of the push, but thankfully Gwaine stabilized him quickly with a hand on his shoulder, "You're assigned to this case now, and if you refuse to carry out orders, I can easily have you removed from the military and placed in a cell for insubordination."

_That_ was when Merlin decided that - commanding officer or not - enough was _enough_, and fought back, "Who do you think you _are_, the king?"

The answering smile was dangerous, and Merlin knew he was in far too deep now, "No, I'm his son, General Arthur Pendragon."

His _son_.

For a frightening moment, Merlin said nothing, and then when he spoke it was with a dragging sneer in his voice, "Understood, _my Lord_."

Arthur had never thought such a title, one that usually was said with respect and reverence, could sound so ugly as an insult.

The large double doors of the office slammed behind Merlin as he left.


	5. 5

**AN: Welp, I'm completely stumped on Greatest Need, so I thought I'd update this story while I'm still ahead on chapters. That little hiatus I said I'd be going on turned out to not be so little. I just can't seem to stop posting chapters while I have them! It's a serious problem- cause then I end up catching up to myself, and then the chapters end up coming out slooooower and sloooower. Bluhghfh. **

**Responces to reviews from Chapter 4:**

**_Megan - Ahhh thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far! :D_**

**_rebel lion75 - haha ye it makes sense, and don't worry- Merlin's time will come. thank you!_**

**_Said The Liar 13 - the general consensus from all these reviews seem to be that you guys all really hate Arthur- omg- what have i done. thank you for the review haha!_**

**_Virebax - Yeah, Arthur was so dedicated to protecting Camelot's people and I didn't want to lose any of that just because of the setting that I have the characters in. That trait was one of my favorites of his personality and honestly it made up the largest bit of what made him the great king/prince he was yknow? XD and yep, no round table for Merlin just yet. Thank you a ton! :D_**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll - aHHhhhhh thank you amiko! wow thank you a ton- i'm so glad that you're enjoying this story and im so grateful for every word you review with. it really makes me happy to see that im improving in my writing in such ways. (and yes, there will be a "Hughes" type character ;D hehehh) thank you again!_**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any FMA elements I use in this story**

**no decapitation this time, folks**

* * *

5: _Set up and Expected_

"What happened to you yesterday, Arthur?"

Arthur groaned and picked his head up from where it rested, held up by his hands, over the picture of the most recent body. '_END THE FEAR_' stood out a glaring red against the darkened bricks in the cropped photo, and Arthur breathed through his mouth as he remembered what it had been like to stand beside the decapitated body.

Ever so slowly, the picture slid out of his line of sight, and Arthur dragged his eyes to follow it. Lancelot stood there, looking disappointed and very mother-ish, the picture tucked beneath his arm. "You were unnecessarily cruel." Lancelot continued, prompting Arthur to respond.

And respond Arthur did. He leaned back in his cushy desk chair and groaned as he ran his hands down either side of his face, "If you're here to lecture me about _Emrys_, then I'm sorry to say but Gwaine and Leon already beat you to the punch."

Lancelot sighed and shook his head, "I knew they would, and I bet Gwaine already called you every derogatory name under the sun while at it too." He set the photo back on the desk, image down, "But I just wanted to say that though my loyalty to you will never waver, I will not stand by idly again while you insult a man who this case depends on, who we need because he can do certain things we cannot, and who doesn't deserve any of your scorn."

Arthur groaned again and spun his chair around so he wouldn't have to face Lancelot's sad puppy look. The man was remarkably good at it and was completely unaware that he was, though he still managed to utilize the expression whenever necessary. He waved a hand dismissively over his shoulder, letting his friend know that anything he said wouldn't be heard. He just couldn't be bothered with this right now. Sorcerers willingly accepted whatever hate or dislike was thrown their way when they made the first decision to practice magic. Surely Merlin had grown used to it. Arthur really had done nothing wrong anyways, he had only stated that the boy should know his place after all.

"Arthur…" Lancelot said, sounding as if he were already at the door. Arthur breathed out deeply and shut his eyes, waiting for the hopelessly noble man to leave him alone already. "... You weren't you yesterday. If anything, I'd say you were more Uther than Arthur."

Arthur's eyes snapped open with a jolt as if the words had been a bullet to his head. He spun the chair back around violently, only to find that Lancelot had already left, the door falling shut with a quiet click.

A groan louder than all the others left Arthur's mouth, and instead of slumping his head in his hands again, he simply let it slam into his desk, a fist following soon after and sending a framed picture that sat on the edge crashing to the ground. The glass of the frame shattered upon impact.

Damn everything.

* * *

"You know, for someone 'not very good at runes,' you seem to know what you're doing."

Merlin glanced up from where he was crouched, etching runes onto the lower part of the brick wall before him with dark charcoal. He met Gwaine's eyes as the man watched over him, Elyan standing at his side but facing the other direction. He didn't truly understand why he needed to be monitored while setting the runes, it had to be terribly boring to watch after all. And more than three people in military uniforms, standing around in alleyways and the less than savory parts of the city, would have raised quite a bit of gossip. Gossip that they didn't have time to clean up just then. So when Merlin had made known his plans to go set up the zones that morning, he found himself walking out into the city with the Lieutenant Colonel and Second Lieutenant at his side, despite how unnecessary he thought it was.

"I said not very good, not incompetent." Merlin quipped with a slight upturn to his lips, scratching in the final line of the rune he worked on. He stood up and brushed off his pants with the hand that hadn't held the charcoal, the one that hadn't been stained with black. "And Gaius gave me a book on the subject." Merlin continued offhandedly, smiling as he thought of the kind physician. He had been right when he had felt that the man and he could become friends and that the healer was trustworthy. When Merlin had bumped into the man outside the command center as he left the other day, and had groaned about needing to know more about runes, the physician hadn't hesitated before offering the boy access to his own personal bookshelves. Merlin only hoped that over time Gaius' kindness wouldn't run out, and that the man wouldn't get annoyed with Merlin popping into his office all the time. The warm smell of plants and chemicals paired with that wise old face were quickly becoming a source of comfort to the lonely sorcerer.

"You didn't tell him what your assignment was, did you?" Elyan asked, feigning casualness not entirely successfully, as his words dragged Merlin from his thoughts. Merlin looked at the dark skinned man in thought for a moment, running over all that he had said to Gaius the day before, before he shook his head. "Good, I shouldn't need to remind you that it's confidential."

Merlin nodded silently, then took a step away from the wall that he had inscribed the runes on. Eyes still running over them to make sure they were all written precisely how they should be, he pressed the palm of his hand to Gwaine's chest to pull the Lieutenant Colonel back a step as well. "Okay, this is where it gets a bit tricky," Merlin said, gaze still fixed on where he had been working, each wall on either side of the alley was inscribed with a line of runes, and another line also ran across the ground connecting the two sides. Once the spell was complete, the three lines of runes would - hopefully - form a rather strong barrier of sorts, preventing anyone who stood in the stretch of alley from the back to the entrance from using most types of magic. Some types of magic and some incantations were just a bit too strong for a simple line of runes to absorb though, but at least this would help to flush the killer out and into areas that the military had under surveillance and could easily apprehend them in. Merlin frowned at the runes in thought for a moment, and put his hands on his hips - forgetting about the charcoal on his hand. The black smudged across his side, but Merlin wouldn't notice until much later. "Or at least, I think so. You both should probably back up anyways just in case I muck this up."

The nonchalant tone of his voice had Gwaine and Elyan backing up on their own, Gwaine looking like an excited child about to see something fantastic, and Elyan looking somewhat pale as if Merlin were going to explode into fire then and there. When Merlin finally deemed them far enough away, he turned his back to the two and raised his hands over the line of runes upon the ground.

At first, nothing happened. Gwaine took a careful step closer through the tense silence, and then another, until he suddenly found himself standing right next to Merlin. Just as he was peering around to look into Merlin's face, the boy's head snapped downwards, eyes flying open and gleaming gold as he hissed powerfully the words of the spell that would connect the runes, "_ámiere drýcræft fram becymende, átéore ne." _

Gwaine stumbled back, as did Elyan despite the safe distance he remained at, as a bright sheen of light lit the charcoal runes. They slowly faded from sight, leaving only a lingering shimmer in the air, like an almost invisible pane of glass, before them. Merlin breathed out heavily and brought his head back up, the black stained hand already at the base of his neck and rubbing out the kinks he had gained from snapping it downwards so dramatically. "Ugh, gotta work on that." Merlin grumbled to himself, his neck smudged with black - just like his uniform was - as he continued to scrunch his shoulders and rub at it. "Well, this zone's done." He stated simply, turning and walking back towards the street so they could move onto the next area.

Gwaine, meanwhile, hadn't moved from where Merlin had left him. He was too busy poking at the air in front of him, trying to see if he could sense a difference in the atmosphere or see the invisible barrier that had been gleaming brightly only moments ago. Elyan also hadn't moved yet, still staring at where the bright display had taken place moments ago. He hadn't much experience with magic - not that anyone on their team did, which honestly was a major flaw - but Elyan would be the first to say that he didn't like to associate with it. He wasn't as _bitter_ towards magic as Arthur was, but he still held a healthy level of caution and suspicion around magic-users and enchanted items. His and his sister's father had been murdered by a sorcerer, who had been angry at the man for not keeping his mouth shut once he had learned that his recent client used black magic. It had been a traumatic experience for the two young Smith children, walking into their father's shop and seeing him lying upon the ground, lifeless and with glassy eyes. That had been the first time Elyan had seen just how dangerous magic could be. There had been neither a scratch nor any internal damage done to their father. Just one simple incantation, one whispered word, and the man who was two children's entire world was gone. Ever since then, Elyan had shoved aside any childish thoughts that whispered at the back of his mind, telling him how beautiful magic could be and how he shouldn't condemn it all just because of one man's terrible deeds. He compromised with himself in the end, not condemning magic, but remaining cautious and distrustful around it. He knew how easily one offhanded word from a sorcerer could kill.

That distrust was what led him to spin around and grasp Merlin's arm, jerking the young sorcerer to a halt. "Shouldn't you test it so it works effectively?" He asked, not ordered, very much aware that he was the lower ranking officer in the situation. Merlin grimaced, looked back at the warded area that was still being poked by Gwaine - how did this man ever get to be a Lieutenant Colonel? - before slumping in resignation. He had known he would have to test each zone they set up, but he had been hoping to avoid it. Having been born with magic, any anti-magic area, no matter how weak and hastily set up with only runes and words to support it, usually had an adverse effect on him.

"Yes, I guess so." Merlin huffed unprofessionally before he pulled his arm from Elyan's grasp as respectively as he could. He stomped back over to the line of runes like a grumpy child who wanted everyone to know they were grumpy, carefully pushed past Gwaine, took a deep breath, and then walked past the runes.

Immediately, Merlin felt as if he had been plunged into an ocean. His hearing became muffled and watery, and his eyesight dimmed until the edges of his uniform became a dull, greyish red rather than the rich color they had been. His breathing became deeper and slower, hardly noticeable as an abnormal breathing pattern, but to Gwaine and Elyan, who had been watching for such changes, it looked as if Merlin had suddenly remembered the importance of air and was doing his best to become one with each breath he took in. Honestly, Merlin felt fine, if not disoriented and disconnected. The zone was far weaker than most of the anti-magic zones that the military would officially put up from time to time, but that was for a reason. It would do the team and the General no good if their murderer were to step down the alley and suddenly know that they had caught onto him. Though the zone was weaker, that didn't mean that Merlin was content standing there with half of his magical ability forcibly locked away. He stepped back over the line quickly, coming to a rest beside Gwaine. The man grasped his shoulder tightly, as if afraid he'd fall over, and for a quick moment Merlin felt a twinge of annoyance. He wasn't that _weak._ Not in the least. But still, the concern he could feel coming from this man who he might call a friend felt nice.

"Yep, works like a charm." Merlin finally breathed, smiling lopsidedly at the Lieutenant Colonel and Second Lieutenant. Gwaine looked like he wanted to ask questions or say something, but Merlin cut him off quickly, "Let's go set up the rest of round 1." He just wanted to get it all over with, give his report, go back to his dorm, collapse on his bed, and then remain in a deep state of unconsciousness until the next day when he'd have to wake up and do it all over again.

Gwaine only nodded, and Elyan said nothing as they left the alley way behind. Merlin was quiet as well, though really, he was preoccupied trying to figure out how many anti-magic zones he would be able to put up before the ringing in his head became too loud to tolerate. Hopefully it'd be worth it, losing all this energy to the runes and his assignment. Perhaps with this, the decapitation-happy serial killer could be caught sooner rather than later. Maybe this was the break Merlin needed to get magic back into the people's good graces. All he had to do was keep his eyes open long enough to see each zone through.

* * *

"_1:56 pm: Recited an incantation paired with runes to ward an area so that magic can not be used within."_

_"2:21 pm: Recited an incantation paired with runes to ward an area so that magic can not be used within." _

_"2:58 pm: Recited an incantation paired with ru-"_

Arthur turned away from the sheet of paper and it's words as they appeared, _magically_, upon the crisp white surface. He had known of and been aware that he would be given the sheet that monitored Merlin's magic use upon becoming the commanding officer of the sorcerer, and had been fully ready to accept it until he saw how it worked. Though he had grasped Merlin's bound wrist and told him to know his place just the other day, there was something about the way the paper dutifully and instantaneously reported whenever gold found its way into those blue irises that made him feel guiltily uncomfortable.

It was necessary though. It was _absolutely _necessary. Arthur glanced back to the top of the records and smirked. "_5:15 am: Used nonverbal magic to put mattress back in place and make the bed." "6:00 am: Used nonverbal magic to slow time and move a bed from one side of the room to the other." _Though the records only showed what the magic was doing, Arthur still had a good idea of what had happened. There was certainly _something_ about Merlin Emrys, he just couldn't put his finger on it.

There was a sharp knock on his office door, and Arthur turned away from the report once more, subtly sliding it into a top drawer of his desk as he called out, "Enter." He had absolutely no idea who was on the other side, as he hadn't been expecting anyone until Merlin, Gwaine, and Elyan finished their little _outing_. Hopefully it wouldn't be someone too unbearable to deal with.

Leon opened the door and then stepped aside, leaving the threshold wide for the king himself to step through. After Lancelot's comment that morning, Arthur's blood was already heating just at the sight of those cleanly polished boots. His father was a good man, an even _greater_ king, and yet Arthur did not know why his mind rebelled so violently at the idea of being compared to him.

"Good day, Arthur." Uther Pendragon drawled as his son saluted him over the desk between them, the door closed with a click as Leon left, "I'm sorry to spring this on you, but I have something of importance to ask you."

Arthur nodded, they'd be cutting right to the chase then it seemed, "Anything, sire."

"Why have you transferred Major Emrys into your team?"

Sorry to spring on you _indeed_. It always came back to that idiot, didn't it. Ever since the boy had enlisted it was _Emrys this Merlin that _and _Sorcerer this. _Nevermind that Arthur had a crazy serial killer on the loose who wanted to_ end fear_ by chopping off heads. The magic of one boy and the way he used it were far more important it seemed. At least now he knew where his father's priorities laid, and honestly, Arthur was somewhat shocked at himself to find that he wasn't surprised at all.

"I thought that a pair of fresh eyes and a knowledge of magic would offer good insight into our current case." Arthur bit out casually as he bubbled and boiled inside, "If I may, sire, why are you suddenly so concerned with the assignment of Merlin Emrys?"

Uther's lips pulled and he braced his hands upon the front of Arthur's desk, "It is not the placement of _Merlin Emrys_ that I am concerned about, it is what you intend to use him for on this case. You think I don't know what goes on in my city?" Uther hissed dangerously, daring Arthur to agree _yes, you're blind as a bat, my Lord. I've sure fooled you. _

Arthur said nothing, and that was confirmation enough for the king.

Uther pulled his hands away from the desk, and stood up straight so as to glare down his nose at his son. Arthur had been the recipient of such a glare many times throughout his life, and had long stopped glancing away or fidgeting like a fearful child. He stood straight as well, and locked eyes with his father challengingly.

Uther glanced once around the room exaggeratedly, as if expecting to see Merlin chained like a dog in the corner at Arthur's side, "Seeing as the Major is not here at this moment, let him know that after he has returned and reported to you, he is _also_ to report to me." Arthur did not nod, but he could feel himself _burning_, "He is to tell me _everything you had him do._"

And with that, Arthur saluted his king in confirmation that he understood, and the king swept from the room with a banging of doors. His appearance had been sudden, it had been professional, and it had jeopardized all that Arthur had planned. What Arthur wanted to know though, was how Uther found out all the details of a case - a case that the same man had brushed aside and hadn't cared about at the beginning of the week - so quickly.

* * *

The next time there was a knock on Arthur's door, far later on in the day, it opened to reveal Gwaine and Merlin. Gwaine looked sourly at Arthur as he supported the sorcerer, one large arm wrapped around Merlin's back beneath his arms. The sorcerer looked as if that arm was the only thing keeping him upright, as he sagged against Gwaine and tripped over his own feet.

"What happened?" Arthur snapped, feeling sour himself. This day had just been one of those days where everything and anything seemed determined to give him a headache.

Gwaine helped Merlin wobble his way to the small couch that Arthur had in his office on days where he just needed a quick break, such as today, and if Arthur didn't know better, he'd think himself looking at a pair of drunks.

"He just pushed himself a bit much, setting up and testing those those things drained all his energy." Gwaine explained as he let a boneless Merlin flop onto the cushions. This situation wasn't professional in any meaning of the word, but Arthur hadn't the energy himself to object or kick up a fuss about the sorcerer being allowed to use his couch.

Merlin suddenly giggled oddly, and opened his bleary blue eyes, "And tomorrow we gotta do it all again. Fun." He slurred in sarcastic excitement. Arthur rolled his eyes, glad to know that Merlin's sense of humor hadn't been dulled by his near unconscious state, and bent forward to slap at the boy's bandaged cheek. He didn't do it to specifically cause pain, but still managed to put enough force behind the motion to jolt Merlin into a better level of consciousness more suited for conversation.

"Pay attention now, Emrys." Arthur said in order to get those blue eyes trained on him, "Can't rest yet." He decided to jump right on in, "The king's figured out our suspicions about this case and wants you to report right to him." Gwaine started beside him, and Merlin picked himself up on his elbows to scrunch his eyebrows at Arthur.

"I thought you said he couldn't care two bits about this thing," Gwaine said, "that he was caught up trying to pinpoint Cenred and talk to other countries about establishing relations."

"Hmm _King_ Cenred? I'm from Essetir yknow. Cenred migh' be a bigger ass than you, Arthur." Merlin babbled uselessly. Neither Gwaine nor Arthur seemed to hear him, or in Arthur's case, he heard him but skillfully gritted his teeth and ignored him.

"Yes well," Arthur said, straightening up and turning to the Lieutenant Colonel, "he has an idea that magic_ might be_ involved, and now it seems it's his top priority to use this serial killer as fuel for another one of his _campaigns_. Can't be sure though." Gwaine grimaced at the word, very aware of what Arthur was saying and what those campaigns were. Though the team knew magic was involved based on the way the victims lost their heads, the king should have had no idea, and now that he did- Gwaine tossed a look to Merlin, who seemed to be gaining more awareness by the second, before placing his hands on his hips and breathing out through his nose.

"I'm guessin our Merlin here isn't gonna really tell him what we're doing?" Gwaine asked knowingly, a small smirk forming. Merlin finally tuned into the conversation after pushing himself into a stable upright sitting position, and he looked up at Arthur for his orders.

"You'd be correct, Gwaine, good job there." Arthur joked before addressing Merlin, "You are to tell him, very clearly, that we only brought you in to test for residual magic at the scenes on the chance that it _might _be a sorcerer. You haven't found any yet. You hear me Major? _You haven't found any evidence that this is a sorcerer yet._"

Merlin gulped and nodded in understanding, wondering how he had gotten in so deep so quickly. Setting up secret anti-magic zones? Lying to the king? He took a deep breath in to steady himself and then nodded once more when he noticed Arthur and Gwaine's eyes upon them.

He smiled shakily, "guess the anti-magic things we've been setting up _haven't_ been getting set up, am I right?" He asked the general. Gwaine smiled and chuckled quietly, and Arthur looked satisfied. There was hope for the situation yet it seemed.

"Precisely."

* * *

**___ámiere drýcræft fram becymende, átéore ne. - Old English - (Hopefully) translates to: "_Prevent magic from entering, fail/grow weary not."**


	6. 6

**AN: Alright! Chapter 6 is here! I'm really enjoying where this story is going though and how much all of you who read it seem to be enjoying it. lots of common questions and - ah, lets say_ concerns_, have come up over certain elements of the story, and i've just been laughing evilly at every single question mark. :D thank you for all the reviews and favorites and follows! It's really appreciated.**

**Also- I'm a bit surprised at you all, none of you who have reviewed have asked after Gwen! Poor Gwen, honestly. How can you not love her. I've hinted at her involvement in other previous chapters, but this chapter is when she's actually entering a bit into the story. (and yes, if any pairing ends up in this story, it will either be Gwen and Arthur or Gwen and Lancelot. I usually tend to write canon pairings unless I have an overwhelming love for some other pairing. Even if i do write romance into this plot though, it will be subtle and won't distract too much from the story) **

**Responses to reviews from chapter 5:**

**_fairy goatmother - thank you for reviewing and being interested! :D _**

**_Said the Liar 13 - ahhh too late, Merlin's in the middle hehe - thank you so much for all your reviews and such! it really makes me happy omg- thanks again! (and ahhh morgana, ya gotta love - i mean, hate - her :D)_**

**_Virebax - you too, thank you for every review so far! a lot of the things you're pickin up on and commenting on in your reviews are the exact kinda things ive been hoping to call attention to in this story- so its really encouraging that you've noticed some of those such things :D thank you again!_**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll - and yoU- amikoooo thank you so much for all your constant reviews. your support really means a lot omg- and im glad ur enjoying how the story is progressing. it lets me know that im not just writing an incomprehensible mush of unrelated events and trying to pass them off as a formulated story XD love ya amiko. (and hey i know i already said this, but good luck at/hope ur having fun at ur CLO camp!) _**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin and I do not own any FMA elements in this story! **

* * *

6: _Questioned and Tired_

"Major Emrys," Uther Pendragon greeted, words oozing with a formal kindness that his eyes negated with the thinly veiled disgust in them. The king gestured to an open chair before his desk, "Take a seat, please."

Merlin entered further into the extravagant office, the chair seeming to be miles and an uphill climb away from his current position. He walked over and stiffly lowered himself into the seat, feeling as if he were sitting in an electric chair about to be executed. That might have been an exaggeration, but Merlin still was unbelievably fearful of what the king would say and do. From a distance, while standing in the center of a large cement field and about to participate in the practical part of the Court Sorcerer Exam, the king had seemed to be respectful, kind, and understanding of the power of magic. After all, his face had brightened in awe at Merlin's performance, and it had given the young sorcerer a bit of hope.

Up close though, Merlin could see that it had all been somewhat of an act. Yes, Uther had been impressed by his show of magic and ability, but no, he did not understand it. He did not welcome it. He did not _like_ it. Similar to how the look on his face stated very clearly that he did not like _Merlin_ either. This was a man who hated sorcerers and magic with all his being, but tolerated them for the sake of powering his military, and Merlin felt cold just sitting before his desk.

"So tell me, Major." Uther began, standing from his desk. The action sent another jolt of electricity from the electric chair into Merlin, and he straightened his back as the man wandered to the side of the desk. "I heard that you've been transferred into General Pendragon's team." _You are to tell him, very clearly, that we only brought you in to test for residual magic at the scenes on the chance that it might be a sorcerer. You haven't found any yet. _ _You hear me Major? You haven't found any evidence that this is a sorcerer. _"What about this case has him requesting your services?"

Merlin swallowed, looked down at the toes of his boots, and swallowed again. "I was transferred to General Pendragon's team to be a consultant on the possibility of magic being involved in the recent murders." His voice tripped on murders, but he pressed on, no longer able to see where the king was as the man continued to wander the room. It was a scare tactic, no doubt. Can't see the enemy, and you become more skittish and less likely to be able to hold a lie. Merlin had been lying his entire life in order to stay alive though, so there was no better suited sorcerer for the job than he. "No conclusive evidence of magic being involved has been found yet though."

"Did my _son_ tell you to say that? Because we both know it isn't true."

Merlin kept his breathing steady as the king made his presence known directly behind him, practically breathing down his neck. Why was the king so interested in his role in the case? Why was the king interested at all? Arthur had jurisdiction over the investigation, and so the king should have just been sitting back - should have been dealing with his own kingly things, whatever those were - while Arthur took care of it. He didn't seem like the overbearing father-type, nor the nosy type. So why was he _so interested?_

"Or did _someone else_ tell you to say that?"

Then the king was gone from where he had been hovering just behind Merlin's shoulder blades, moving back around the desk to the front of Merlin, "You're not originally from Camelot, are you Major?"

The subject change was surprising and gave Merlin a little bit of a foreboding feeling. He nodded slowly. "I'm… I was born in a small village just over the border; Ealdor, sir."

The king hummed and looked away, out of the windows that made up the wall behind his desk. "That's in Cenred's kingdom, correct?"

"... Yes sir."

"And now you're working very closely with my son, on a case that may or _may not_ involve magic."

Oh. _Oh. _That was why the king was being so insistent. He had different motives than what Arthur expected. Arthur thought his father would use his commanding actions as fuel to start a new brand of anti-magic laws, but no, his father was focused entirely on the fact that Essetir had been strangely quiet for some time now. Uther Pendragon was paranoid of an attack, so obviously paranoid, and so at the first hint of unrest within his kingdom with someone from Essetir being connected to it, he had pounced.

"Sire, please, it's not what you think-" Merlin said, momentarily forgetting himself and rising from his chair in an effort to correct the king and sooth his paranoia. Merlin had left Ealdor because of their attitude against magic. He had left Essetir because sorcerers there were used as weapons and kept in suffocating, magic-suppressing chains, while in Camelot they were given a rank and a bracelet and sent on their merry way. He had left because he was scared and wanted to make things so that he and everyone like him wouldn't have to be scared, and because Camelot was the best place to start. He hadn't come to Camelot because he was a spy, or because he was trying to bring down the country from the inside on Cenred's command, or because he was a weapon that had been pointed at Camelot and told to _fire. _

Uther turned and fixed him with a cold glare that somehow burned at the same time, and Merlin dropped like a stone back into his seat. He waited, breath held, for the king to speak, to pass judgement, and then for everything to be over. "You are dismissed, Major."

Merlin breathed again, eyes wide, "What- I-"

"Run back to my son now, keep helping out with his investigation." Uther turned his back on the shaking sorcerer, "But be aware, I will be _extensively_ looking into your background, and how you appeared _so suddenly_."

Merlin stood on wobbly knees, drained from the magic he had used earlier that day to set up the anti-magic zones and drained now from the thoughts swirling inside his head, "But sir, I-" He wasn't entirely sure how he had appeared so suddenly either, or how he had found himself right up next to the prince and knee deep in blood. His head thudded painfully.

"You are _dismissed._"

Merlin breathed sharply - _Watch your step, watch your back. You are not a blurred face in the crowd any longer - _and then bowed his head to the king.

"...Thank you, my lord."

The sorcerer walked as quickly as he possibly could without outright sprinting for the door. He stumbled into the room beyond, mind whirling with all his not yet processed thoughts. _What had just happened. _Merlin felt as if he had just been in a hurricane of words and accusations. He took a breath and ran both his hands down his thin face, still standing just outside the king's office, and slumped back against the thick wall to the side of the door.

"Are you alright?"

Merlin yelped rather embarrassingly at the sudden voice and tripped clumsily on air, back sliding down the wall until he was sitting with his knees bent uncomfortably and his hands thrown out to the side. He looked around for the source of the concerned voice, trying not to seem as disoriented as he was, and couldn't help but gape when he did.

The woman had stood from her desk when Merlin had gone down, green eyes fixed upon him in shock and amusement. She had long black hair that flowed down around her shoulders like a thick river, and pale hands that were pressed against her mouth which was curled in an amused grin as Merlin attempted to bring himself into a standing position. "Oh I'm- I'm fine. Yeah. Fine. Just, needed to- Yeah." Merlin babbled, brain most decidedly on vacation after the trying events of the day. If his brain had been present, he would have said something witty, or at least realized that the fact that the woman's desk was just outside Uther Pendragon's door meant that she worked very closely with him. He hadn't expected to be treading on thin ice as constantly as he was when he had come to Camelot, but it seemed the entire country was thinly frozen over.

"Are you sure?" She asked, moving her hands from her mouth and quirking her lips as she moved from her desk to approach Merlin. "You came out of there-" a sharp point towards the door that Uther Pendragon was shut behind, as if he were an angry dragon guarding his hoard inside, "Looking not too different from most who leave his office."

"So he's always that pleasant then?" Merlin quipped, brain finally finished rebooting itself. He looked at the woman's shoulders for some kind of indication of rank, found none, but decided to salute her anyways. "I'm Merlin Emrys, and it's a pleasure to meet you miss...?"

A pleasant smile answered him, "Morgana, Morgana Pendragon."

Ah._ Wonderful_. It seemed Pendragons just kept popping up everywhere Merlin went.

Morgana laughed at Merlin's expression, with him not even realizing he had made one, "I take it that you've met Arthur as well then?" Merlin nodded, frowning only slightly at the thought of the General. "Oh don't mind either of them. Arthur thinks its his job to save the world and Uther thinks the world is his. Either way, they're both annoying and pompous, and I know first hand how they can get."

Merlin blinked at Morgana's words, wondering at how casually she talked of her brother and father. He himself had never had siblings - thank goodness for that too, Merlin wasn't sure if his mother could have survived having to shield and protect _two_ small children from the hate that surrounded them - but he couldn't be sure if he would have talked such as Morgana had. Her words rang true though, Merlin mused as he recalled Arthur's determination to keep their plans for the investigation a secret so as not to panic the populace, and Uther's strict voice that made Merlin feel like a bug beneath his heel. Save the world and own the world. Two very different ideals from so similar people. Hopefully Arthur would never grow into what his father had become. He seemed like a good man, even if he had been prattish and rude to Merlin ever since their first meeting.

"Well," Merlin coughed to break the awkward air that had settled as he had thought, "thank you for your concern, Miss Pendragon, but I should be going now."

Morgana nodded understandingly, and smiled sweetly to Merlin once again. She seemed to be cut from an entirely separate cloth than Uther and Arthur, with her lovely dark looks and independent personality. If there was one Pendragon Merlin wouldn't mind running into again, it would have to be Morgana.

"Oh, yes, don't let me keep you and have my brother get annoyed with your tardiness." She said breezily with a toss of her hand, "Feel free to blame me, Arthur certainly won't mind doing that."

Merlin chuckled with a nod, not even thinking of mentioning that he wasn't going to report back to Arthur, and had instead been granted leave for the rest of the day to replenish the strength he had lost setting up the anti-magic zones that was already steadily climbing back to normal levels. "Very well, my lady." He said with a small smirk and bow, surprised with himself and how quickly he had warmed up to the woman. Perhaps it was her hair, dark and long, curling just like _her's_ had.

No. Merlin stopped that train of thought with enough force to derail the train completely. Straightening his back, he nodded quietly once more to a smiling Morgana before turning and respectfully taking his leave from the room. With his back turned and mind occupied, the sorcerer missed the split second moment in which that smile curved sharply downwards.

* * *

A yawn broke the crisp air of the early morning, as Merlin shuffled along the street beside Arthur, both with less than happy expressions on their faces.

"So, tell me again why I'm awake at 2 am right now?" Merlin groaned boldly to his commanding officer, yawning widely again. He had been wrenched from sleep like a fish from water by a pounding upon his door that morning, Percival on the other side sent to summon him to the latest crime scene. It was startlingly close to the military dorms, and Merlin was doing his best to fight the chill that certainly was _not_ from the air by utilizing his ability to ask questions that were loaded with sarcasm and dry tones.

Arthur rolled his eyes but said nothing to the Major, instead sending him a sharp glare, then continuing to stride steadily towards the gathering of police and cars that Merlin could see just down the road. Percival had gone ahead after waking Merlin, and his large form could be seen standing beside the slightly smaller form of Gwaine, just outside the mouth of the alley.

"We've got a witness this time." Gwaine hissed as Merlin and Arthur arrived. Arthur jerked in surprise, and glanced searchingly down the alley, just able to see a huddled form beneath a blanket that Elyan crouched beside. Recognition and horror lit his eyes for but a moment, before the shutters of cold aloofness slid back across the blue.

"At this hour of the morning...?" Merlin muttered, running a hand through his unruly hair, still stuck up with sleep. Gwaine nodded, his solemn expression momentarily replaced with amusement as he took in the grumpy, sleepy forms of the Court Sorcerer and the General. Merlin looked muddled and confused in his sleepiness, but Arthur just looked grim.

"Has anyone questioned her yet?" Arthur asked, still staring down the alley.

"No, but Elyan's been talking to her. We don't think she saw the actual _thing_." Gwaine explained, Percival nodding once beside him. Arthur nodded as well to this answer, and then headed down the alley towards the huddled form himself, leaving a very muddled Merlin behind with Gwaine and Percival.

Merlin blinked, "Should I...?" He gestured at the back of the alley beyond where Arthur had stopped, the dead-end wall still invisible in the early morning darkness. The body that lay there was but a darkened mass, looking like a slump of trash more than a human being. Police tape ran across from wall to wall before it, and policemen themselves swarmed like bugs, acting as a bright indicator for where Merlin was to investigate.

"Probably." Gwaine answered. He watched the sorcerer before him with a solemn expression, telling his new friend that he was sorry for the quick escalation of the case with everything but words. Merlin recognized this, and offered Gwaine a weak, exhausted smile, before his shoulders slumped and he made to follow Arthur down into the dark. Arthur had crouched on the other side of the witness, across from Elyan. As merand as Merlin passed close to them he could hear the sobbed out words of the person hunched between the Second Lieutenant and the General.

"I don't know what happened." The woman choked out, one hand clutching Elyan's, the other clutching Arthur's, both grips tight as if she were drawing upon the very life forces of her comforters to keep herself together. Merlin found himself hesitating as he passed the trio, somewhat surprised that Arthur - strict General and stuck up Prince that he was - was showing such obvious concern towards another person. He had only known the man for a few days, as he had the rest of Arthur's team, and though he had recognized earlier what a good man Arthur was, it didn't excuse him from how unkind he had been and how all his behavior had seemed to point Merlin to the conclusion that Arthur was _not _the type of person to be in touch with his emotions, much less someone else's.

"I- I don't know what- I wasn't even out walking! I was at home, _asleep._" Elyan squeezed the girl's hand a bit tighter and pressed himself a bit closer. Merlin blinked at the show of familiarity, momentarily confused until he got a glimpse of the witness's face under the blanket wrapped around her. She and Elyan had the same soft, round jawline and dark skin; ah, they were siblings.

The sorcerer continued walking past the small huddled group, not wanting to intrude as Elyan did his best to comfort his sister and Arthur did his best to coax coherent answers from her. He would ask someone later about Arthur's connection to the youngest Smith sibling, but right now - Merlin rolled his sleeves up subconsciously, forgetting momentarily of the metal wristlet he would be exposing. It was an old habit of his that looked to be dying hard - right now he had a job to do.

Merlin held the police tape up with one hand and ducked swiftly beneath it, ignoring the odd glances he received from the policemen that were still milling about. Honestly, the policemen really weren't needed anymore, not now that _Arthur and his Amazing Team of Camelot Knights!_ were on the scene. Their lingering presence was more for professional formalities and requirement, rather than necessity. Merlin yawned once as he straightened himself on the other side of the tape, his eyes scrunched shut with the force of the yawn as he took a step forward.

That single step plunged Merlin straight into an ocean. A dull roar overtook his sense of hearing, and he staggered for a moment at the suddenness of the uncomfortable sensation that enveloped him. He turned his head immediately, and squinted through the muddled bleariness that his vision had become at the walls of the alley. Sure enough, a darkened line of charcoal runes ran up the wall. He had just set up all these anti-magic zones the day before - not even a little over twelve hours ago - and so he should have had enough sense to _remember_ where he had been assigned to put them. Merlin supposed that the unorthodox interrogation from Uther and the little amount of sleep he had received could be adequately blamed for his forgetfulness that morning.

The fact that he was standing in an anti-magic zone he had set up extremely recently though was a chilling one. Either the murderer hadn't noticed the faint buzzing in their skull until their decapitation trick took more than one try, or they had noticed and killed within the zone _deliberately. _Merlin felt sick as he stepped closer to the body. Judging by the unclean, multiple cuts that were etched deeply into what was left of the victim's neck and still dripping red, the spell definitely didn't look like it had worked the first time. Or the second. Or the_ third._

Merlin stepped closer again, trying to get a better look with his foggy, dulled vision - and then he looked up.

'_STOP THE HATE' _was smeared gruesomely in fresh blood across the wall, clearly seen by even Merlin's eyes.


	7. 7

**AN: Here's chapter 7! Anything else I would say here in this author's note will probs get said in review responses. Thank you all for reading and such! Enjoy!**

**Responses to reviews from chapter 6:**

_**909090 - I like Mergana as much as the next Mergana shipper, but sadly I will not be writing it into this story (I do ship them though- a **_**lot**_** actually- because the way their relationship twists and progresses and the way Merlin feels guilty about her compared to Morgana's absolute **_**hatred**_** and disdain for him is just - ahhhHHHhh character and relationship deterioration done riGHT)**_

_**gingerO.o - Thank you very much! :D I'm glad you like the story so far!**_

_**Said the Liar 13 - hmmm the killer **_**is**_** a mystery aren't they :D hahah (but ye- we're definitely lookin at a showdown here in the future ;) ) thank you!**_

_**one-blacksheep-girl - Thank you! oh gosh, if you draw a map you'll have to link me or send me it! I'd be really interested in seeing that! and yeah, I'm actually just imagining them in FMA uniform recolors essentially - i might draw the uniform though once I'm really confident that this story is going to be finished and that it has a significant following. (and about mergana, already addressed! sorry :( ) and dont worry! You shall be entertained as much as I am able to entertain! thank you!**_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll - yeP ahHHhh thank you amiko! (and it maaaaybe was a nod to Freya ;) maybe maybe yeah ok it was) thank u thank uuuuuuu **_

_**Virebax - Hehe, well thanks for blindly trusting in me then XD! and im glad that scene was informative - i'm always worried that I write too much of the inside workings of the character's minds/motives and don't tell enough about whats happening- but ye thanks! (hehe yes the hair :D ur welcome) and hey never be sorry for the length of your reviews! any and all reviews I get always make me so happy, cause it lets me know that I must be doing SOMETHING right in this story! its been really great reading all yours. thank you!**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any elements of FMA that I use in this story**

_**WARNING: Gory d**_**escriptions of decapitation - but not the actual act - and getting sick/vomiting **_**(im a bit worried that Merlin is a bit OOC in this chapter- I've been tryin really hard to keep everyone accurate but, in the light of this next revelation and how inexperienced he is right now, I hope you all can understand and forgive me unu)**_

* * *

7: _Sick and Useless_

No.

No no _no_.

Merlin's mind threw itself against the walls of his skull, protesting loudly - yet internally - against the message before him and the puzzle pieces that were crashing into place.

This murderer had the same goal as him.

This _murderer _wanted magic to be free, and for the hate to stop, and for people to feel _safe._

But he was going about it _the wrong way_.

Merlin clutched the police tape behind him and burnt it away with a quick flash of gold. He staggered back, eyes still fixed upon the wall and the sickening words that reflected everything he wanted in life. _This_ was why the team had wanted him and him alone as the only sorcerer on the case. He was new, and unused to the prejudices of Camelot life - military life - and he would have no idea if information was being kept from him or if he was keeping information from other people. They didn't want a riot starting - a _civil war_ even - because of one mad man's agenda and the unknowingness of whether the sorcerers they pulled in would agree with the murderer or not. Even if that wasn't an issue, the topic of magic and the laws governing its usage was a touchy one. The less people there were that knew all the details - the less people there were to _spill_ all the details - the less chance there was of protests against magic after seeing what a murderer could do with it and _why. _

Merlin pressed his hand to the wall and turned himself physically away. Back now to the bloody message, he hunched over, right hand on his stomach, and bent himself in half trying not to throw up. Despite no longer being within the anti-magic zone, he still felt deaf. Muffled words from the military police and the members of Arthur's team that were there rose and fell around him, but Merlin couldn't make out what they were saying.

Merlin remembered when he was little, and when his mother and he were cold at night because she was too fearful of leaving the house to get firewood. He could remember her telling him stories of his father in the cold chill, and how _brave_ the man was despite always having to hide because Uther or Cenred or Odin or whatever _mad king of the month_ would burn him for his magic. The world couldn't go back to that. Merlin remembered again, of Arthur telling him just the other day that under no uncertain circumstances should he let the king - Uther Pendragon - know of the truth behind the case. That it was definitely a sorcerer murdering people who were against magic, that they hadn't caught him, and that the sorcerer had flaunted himself and killed within their anti-magic zones and yet _they still hadn't caught him. _Uther Pendragon couldn't know, or else, Merlin suddenly knew, the world would go back to how it had been when hiding was how people with magic stayed alive.

He lost his battle, and the day before's dinner found itself splashed grossly across the pavement. Merlin's back heaved with each ragged breath. Someone swore loudly from down the alley way, and suddenly large, warm hands were curled around Merlin's shoulders. The sorcerer tilted his head up slightly when he was done being sick, and squinted to make out the man before him, only to find that it was Lancelot. The First Lieutenant shouted something over his shoulder, before turning back and looking at Merlin with worry. His hands remained on Merlin's shoulders as they guided him to stand, and stayed there even still as they left the burned away police tape and mangled body behind them. The air at the mouth of the alley was fresh and clear of the smell of blood, and Merlin gulped it down with deep breaths. Lancelot had taken his hands away by then, but still stood beside Merlin; a steadying presence there as support.

"If you don't want to be a part of this anymore, I can see if you could be reassigned."

The offer was quiet and generous, but Merlin spluttered all the same. He wiped at his mouth and turned his head to look at Lancelot, who was looking back at him with understanding. Lancelot knew he hadn't lost it because of the sight of the mangled body. Someway, somehow, Lancelot knew that the situation had suddenly become so much more for the sorcerer beside him, and was offering Merlin a chance out before it got too overwhelming.

Merlin felt his chest tighten, and he coughed once before turning away, eyes fixed upon the dark ground so he didn't have to look Lancelot in the eyes. "No, no it's… I can't back out now. You understand?" It was ridiculous to ask if Lancelot understood, because Merlin was well aware that he did. It was none the less comforting though as the man nodded and squeezed Merlin's shoulder firmly.

"You alright to go back down there?" Lancelot prompted, gesturing with his free hand to the alley way and the muted chaos that was going on behind them. Arthur was no longer crouched beside the witness, and instead was standing close to the end wall with his back to Lancelot and Merlin. Merlin squinted through the darkness at the General's broad shoulders, before turning back to face the open street and hunch his own.

"Not yet." He murmured, and was grateful when Lancelot did not push him.

Elyan and his sister - the witness - slowly made their way past Merlin and Lancelot then, the girl still wrapped in the shock blanket, but no longer crying. She was holding herself straight and tall, looking strong despite the blotchy wet skin beneath her deep brown eyes. For a moment, as she and Elyan walked, she hesitated near Merlin, eyes flickering from his metal wristlet to his face and then back again. Merlin didn't dare to acknowledge that he had noticed her glances, and simply stayed - leaning against the wall next to Lancelot - waiting for the woman to pass him by.

"Hello, I… I'm Guinevere."

She hadn't passed him by, and Merlin blinked at the dark skinned hand being offered to him. Elyan seemed tense, arms still wrapped around his sister's shoulders, but Merlin could hardly blame the man. He must look a sight after all, flushed and pale all at once, sleeves rolled to his elbows, standing at the end of the wall looking like a weak little child who couldn't handle his first crime scene. The witness - Guinevere - didn't seem to mind though, and she smiled wobbly at Merlin, as if seeing in him someone else who was shaken as much as she was, someone she could connect to.

Merlin could understand that, "Oh, I'm Merlin." He felt Lancelot brush against his shoulder, "And this is-"

Guinevere chuckled then, and nodded in a familiar gesture of greeting to the man that Merlin stood beside. Lancelot looked rightly amused as well, and quietly informed Merlin, "We know each other already. Gwen here is a regular visitor to our little team office. She certainly brightens up the boring days."

With a flush, Gwen stuck her hand out to Merlin a little further, "Thank you, Lancelot." She said with barely a tremor in her voice, smiling like nothing was wrong, "It's a pleasure to meet you Merlin."

And who was Merlin to refuse such a warm smile and such a brave mask? She was clearly trying hard to keep herself together, even after what she had seen that they did not know of yet. He reached out and grasped her smaller, warmer hand in his colder, thinner one, shaking it firmly. Imperceptibly, Merlin stiffened as their hands connected.

Gwen pulled away a moment later with a grateful smile, using her now free hand to tug the blanket more securely around her shoulders. She opened her mouth as if to say something more to Merlin and Lancelot, but a sharp bellow of "_MER_LIN." From the end of the alley way cut her off.

"Ah, sorry!" Merlin said quickly, both to Gwen and to the waiting General. He glanced from her to the far away Pendragon and then back again quickly. Multiple military policemen that stood around Arthur were looking up the alley at him as well, and Merlin grinned and shrugged his shoulders in acceptance as he pulled his sleeves back down to his wrists. "It seems my fans await." He joked, though in all honesty, joking when there was a dead body lying only a few quick strides away was never a good idea.

With a final nod to Lancelot, Merlin left his fellow soldier there to continue talking with the Smith siblings. The man seemed comfortable with Guinevere, and Elyan - though he still had his arm wrapped around his sister - was able to join in the conversation as well once Merlin had left the trio behind. They all seemed to be close friends, a family even, brought together through their membership in a quite unorthodox team, and Merlin was the new kid who not everyone was comfortable around yet.

Merlin hesitated at the new line of police tape that someone had put up, but upon seeing Arthur's stoney glare, he quickly ducked beneath it and plunged himself back into the anti-magic zone. The dampening of his senses wasn't as abrupt that time, though it still tired Merlin and by now was faintly annoying him. He'd need to be his sharpest in order to be of the best use to the team, and currently he was certainly _not_ his sharpest.

"Thank you for finally gracing us with your presence." Arthur snarled sarcastically as Merlin shuffled up beside him, not sounding as if he were joking in least. "Now, if you're done fainting and swooning at the sight of blood like a _girl_, lets get this investigation started."

Merlin huffed at the insult, bristling and glaring and looking like a bird with its feathers puffed up to look more intimidating than it actually was. He didn't bother responding to Arthur's jabs though, head buzzing far too much to think of witty retorts. Instead, he bent himself at the knees so as to get closer to the victim, the toes of his shoes scraping at the chalk outline someone had drawn as a marker as to where the body had been for when they later moved it away.

Immediately, Merlin felt the faint lingering pulse of magic thrum and shove against the barrier that the zone provided. It was like a fingerprint, smudged and hard to see, but still present. "Definitely a sorcerer." Merlin whispered, chancing a glance up at his commanding officer, and then to the words that stared down at him not even four feet away, "But you already knew that." He said bitterly.

Arthur rolled his eyes dramatically, "So did you. You read the file." He snapped to the sorcerer, arms crossed and looking at Merlin like he was an annoying child that couldn't grasp a concept they had been told of multiple times. Merlin was very much aware of the look being thrown his way, and he bowed his head over the body bitterly.

"There was nothing in the file about that," He gestured to the words on the wall, but then continued, changing the subject slightly, "Or the fact that they were using a _very_ strong spell. If I had known I could've made this stronger." One arm gestured to the line of runes at his back, and Arthur's eyes followed the sweeping motion of the limb.

"Do you have any idea of what this _very strong _spell is?" Arthur muttered in a questioning tone as Merlin stood back to his full height, not willing to admit that he had no knowledge on how to gauge the strength of spells and so was unable to tell Merlin such information for that reason. The sorcerer blinked slowly, as if blinking sleep from his eyes, and Arthur found himself unconsciously preparing for if the man fainted.

Thankfully, Merlin did not wobble or fall in the slightest, and stood tall as he answered, "Nah. We'd have to get this body out of this stupid zone before I could make any final observations on the residual magic left from the spell." At the General's prompting look, Merlin blinked slowly once again, looking just the faintest bit confused - as if he couldn't believe that Arthur had little to no knowledge on the actual way magic worked. Arthur turned his head away towards the wall as Merlin slowly explained, "Every bit of magic done leaves a, ah lets say _trace_, that has two parts." The Major began, "One part being almost like a fingerprint for the person, unique to each sorcerer - and the other part being like a fingerprint for the magic, unique to each spell." Merlin paused then, and brushed at the knees of his uniform pants absently before continuing, "Gwen... Guinevere- that witness? She was enchanted, so I've already got a little bit of a feel for the 'fingerprint' of our _magical murderer_."

Merlin had hoped that by throwing the alliteration in there, it would derail the force with which Arthur responded. No such luck.

"_What?" _The General hissed, eyes narrowed as he suddenly decided to focus his attention upon the Court Sorcerer at his side. "What do you mean she's been _enchanted?" _

Merlin frowned then, and narrowed his eyes at Arthur. The man had no business getting upset with him - as if he was the one who had spelled Gwen from her bed so that she would witness a murder. "I mean exactly what I said. She was put under an enchantment, forced to walk all the way over here, and then brought to consciousness for a reason you and I can both guess." He jerked his head towards the body at their feet, neck still a gaping maw of red blood and bone. Arthur went white at the thought of Gwen - _sweet, friendly, strong Guinevere_ - being forced against her will to watch each attempt that the murderer had made at separating the head from the body.

"Why." Arthur grumbled, not entirely searching for an answer.

Merlin answered anyways, "It was a threat."

Arthur turned and fixed the sorcerer with a burning glare, but Merlin did not back down despite how sick he still looked. Leave it to a sorcerer to piece together so quickly the puzzle pieces left behind by another sorcerer.

"Gwen is close to the team, right? She's Elyan's sister. You all know her. Bringing her in when she had nothing to do with it, and then killing in an anti-magic zone that we just set up-" Merlin breathed in, the breath shuddering in his chest, before he breathed out through his teeth in a painful sigh, "They're letting us know that they know what we're doing, that we're close, and that we better back off or else next time… Next time it'll be worse than just having someone _watch._"

It was too early for this. It was too early for Arthur's world and plans to be falling apart. It was too _damn _early for some _madman_ to threaten _him _and _his people_ in his _own damn city_. Arthur pressed a hand to his forehead and kneaded his temple, the other gloved hand clenched into a tight fist. "Could those 'magical fingerprints,'" he unclenched his fists and waggles his own fingers in Merlin's face. The sorcerer scowled. "you felt help us get some leads?"

"Not unless I encountered the person as they did magic and got a feel for that too. Have to have a fingerprint to match it with." Merlin said, and Arthur groaned. They could hardly go around the city, asking each and every person that was even vaguely associated with magic to present some before their newbie Court Sorcerer. It was impractical and would take far too much time - time in which the killer could strike again.

"Then what use _are you_?" Arthur said. He immediately had a feeling that if Lancelot or Gwaine were standing with them that he would have died from being glared at, and then there'd be two bodies to lug to the morgue instead of one. Thankfully, Lancelot seemed to have disappeared from the scene, probably to escort Gwen and Elyan either back to their home or to Camelot's center. The man always seemed to go extremely soft when Guinevere was around - something Arthur could understand - which caused him to forget his duty often times in favor of making sure Gwen's needs were met. It was only a slightly problematic quirk of the man's, and went hand in hand with his loyalty to his friends. Gwaine and Percival were outside the alley, standing by the cars and talking with a few of the military policemen. Arthur hoped they were doing what they did best, which was gathering information to then relay back to him, instead of the _other _thing they did best, which was slack off and stand around gossiping like teenagers. Until then, Arthur hadn't really noticed the absence of Leon. Usually the man was at his right hand side no matter what, but it seemed that in this instance he was holding down the fort at central command all by his lonesome. Or sleeping. That was more likely, seeing as it was two in the _goddamn_ morning.

Instead of getting glared at by Merlin's 'defenders' though, Arthur found himself being glared at by the boy himself. Merlin had moved backwards behind the police tape again, and had his arms crossed tightly over his chest with his back hunched slightly. Arthur guessed the sorcerer must feel as tired as he looked. He hoped he did not look the same.

Then Merlin spun on his heel and began to walk away.

Arthur groaned and let his head loll backwards on his neck before he turned to face the sorcerer's back. "And where do you think you're _going_, Major?" He snapped in annoyance, though not entirely feeling it. He was starting to see - just a little bit - of how snappish and rude he was to the sorcerer, and honestly, the man didn't deserve to be berated on his usefulness when Arthur himself had let five people now be killed. Merlin had done what had been assigned of him and was doing his best, as they all were.

Merlin didn't turn as he responded back in the same tone as Arthur, his stride never breaking, "Well if I've no use here, I might as well just go to the office and start going through the exciting paperwork there, _General_." He reached the end of the alley and disappeared around the corner, smudged uniform fading out into the darkness of the morning.

The first rays of the sun hit the sky just as the camera began to flash, and Arthur found himself stepping back behind the police tape as well. He felt sick as he watched the head of the victim be bagged, images of Gwen or Merlin or any of his friends' heads being bagged in its stead causing his fists to tremble.


	8. 8

**AN: Annnnnd chapter 8! I really should be working on some projects I've been assigned but since this is really just a transition/filler chapter, I thought it'd be okay if I typed it out really quickly and posted it quickly as well. Enjoy!**

**Responses to reviews from chapter 7:**

**_Felicity P - Thank you very much! :D I'm glad you like the plot and my writing._**

**_Lady Ningrum - Morgana will fit in soon enough! She's just very busy with her role as secretary to the king and such that I havn't included her in any chapters lately haha. Thank you very much! I don't think I've ever had a story of mine be described as getting hotter and tastier, but omg that made me smile._**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll - yes yes! that scene from the first FMA was my main influence behind that bit of the chapter. and ahhh i'm glad you dont think he was too OOC or that anyone else is. CMU camp is goin good so far! I've got tons of stuff to do but there's lots more down time to do it in than I expected :D and yes the plot thickens hehehhehhhhhhh_**

**___toomanyfandomstopick - FMA fans unite! wooO haha! and I wish i could incorporate a notice- I'll try adding something to the summary maybe, but I'm unsure if I have enough words left bluh. thank you so much for this long review- it really made me happy :D _**

**_Virebax - Ahh im glad you too don't think he was OOC. (and that quote yes- I try and incorporate actual quotes from the show very sparingly and only when they fit. when quotes are obviously copied for different situations it kind of irks me, but having a few key quotes that bring out certain parts of characters worked in well is what I like, so that's what I try to do!) And yep- Arthur is graaaadually warming up to our young warlock here. oh and dont worry about Leon, he just wasn't in that chapter/scene. nothing's wrong with him! Thank you so much for the review and for liking my story so much! it's really encouraging. (and that woman in merlin's past- hmmm maybe if u pay attention to this chapter you'll see something! :)_**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or any FMA elements incorporated in this story**

_**WARNING:**_ **drinking and one quick mention of suicide**

* * *

8: _Concerned and Learning_

Merlin rubbed at his eyes again, feeling them droop under the weight of the invisible sand that was gathering on his lids. Every time he shut them though, he saw flashes of a blood stained wall and felt a phantom magic sting his fingers. His first crime scene, first official involvement in military investigations and dealings, and he had mucked it up royally by losing his stomach and failing to offer any useful information or assistance. His report on that morning's events was bland and to the point, with holes of missing details where Arthur had commanded his team to leave out the fact it had been done in one of their secret anti-magic zones or the fact that Gwen had witnessed it not of her own free will. After the onslaught of startling realizations he had experienced earlier, Merlin could understand the General's need to keep such details from the people and his father, but for the records surely the truth was necessary. The amount of secrets brewing in the Pendragon family and in the military of Camelot had Merlin feeling very much like a small falcon amongst vultures. Everyone had an agenda, and although Arthur's was to keep as many of his people safe as he could, the lies still left a bad taste in Merlin's mouth and a twitch in his fingers.

"Hey, Merlin."

Merlin looked up from the paper on his little desk - the desk that had wheels on the bottom of it, that had been rolled into the corner of the main office of Arthur's team for the duration of his involvement in the case - to Lancelot who had called his name. The man was seated as his own desk, though he had turned in his chair to look with concern at the sorcerer.

"Perhaps you should go see Gaius. I'm sure he wouldn't mind your company." Lancelot offered, words heavy with suggestion, as if he knew something Merlin didn't. Truthfully though, the day was turning out to be a slow one. After the flurry of events after the murder, the team had sat down in their office to write their reports and to wait for the military police to do all the necessary evidence gathering and picture taking. Other than the questioning of their one and only witness, Guinevere Smith, which would be done by a few of the professionals in that department with Leon standing by, nothing would be available for the team to start going over and looking into until later in the day. Merlin certainly wouldn't be missed from a work standpoint, but on the other hand, Arthur had been in an odd mood since the crime scene. The General had stomped himself into his office and had stayed there, and though he hadn't emerged for _hours _- "Prolly in there taking a nap. Selfish bastard." Gwaine had groaned - Merlin was just waiting for the moment he'd burst out and haul him up by the collar, then throw him in the stocks or do something else just as ridiculous to punish the sorcerer for _not doing his job. _

There truthfully was no job to be done though, and so Merlin nodded thankfully to Lancelot, "Yeah, alright." He decided as he stood. The other man probably had another motive behind suggesting that Merlin go to Gaius, after all, Merlin had just gotten sick and nearly fainte- no no no he wouldn't think of that. Lancelot was concerned, and that was nice, but Merlin was perfectly fine and healthy and sound of mind. He threw a lopsided smile towards the noble man's direction, and another at Gwaine and Percival who sat at their respective desks as well, "If Arthur comes out here looking for me for some reason or another, just let him know that I _vanished mysteriously_." He joked. It wasn't his best, but judging by the reaction of amused breaths of air and shaking of heads he'd say the quip did its job.

Gaius was unsurprised to see Merlin as he entered the physician's office, which in turn surprised Merlin. He had barely opened the door before Gaius was upon him like a mother hen, ushering the sorcerer into the room with a muttered, "_There_ you are you _foolish_ boy."

"Wha- Gaius?" Merlin said as the man pushed against his shoulders and forced him down onto a small stool. "Stop-" A thermometer was shoved comically into Merlin's open mouth. He nearly choked on it before managing to grab the end and pull it away from his tongue. "Gaius what are you doing?!" He had never seen the physician so frenzied before. Usually Gaius was a calm, wisened presence - part of the reason Merlin had so quickly gotten comfortable with the man and fallen into an almost familial type relationship with him.

Gaius raised an eyebrow, and Merlin popped the thermometer back into his mouth.

"Lancelot informed me of what happened today." The physician said simply, turning his back to the young sorcerer as he puttered around looking for what the now informed Merlin assumed was probably going to be a stomach soother.

Merlin tugged the thermometer back out of his mouth. "Well," He fished through his mind for a moment, trying to figure out how to accurately respond. It was nice that the man had been concerned for him enough to send a message to the Court Physician asking that he be looked over, but Merlin truly was not sick. He had been shocked, yes, and _sickened_, but he was not ill in any way. "I'll thank Lancelot, but I'm _not_ sick, Gaius." Merlin said.

Merlin found himself face to face with another raised eyebrow.

"Okay okay- so I threw up a little bit earlier- it was nothing and I feel much better now. I'm fine, honestly!" Merlin said quickly, hoping to avoid the wrath of Gaius before it was too late.

Gaius merely sighed, breath heavy, as he plucked the thermometer away from Merlin with an experienced, old hand. He looked as if he wanted to say something for a moment, and Merlin waited for the old man to do so, but instead Gaius turned away back to face his shelves. Merlin's shoulders relaxed, and he let his eyes trail to the floor for a moment while Gaius's back was turned.

"Just, be careful my boy."

Merlin brought his eyes up quickly to focus on the hunched back of the physician. He blinked once and opened his mouth to respond, but Gaius didn't seem to be finished yet.

"I fear you may be getting in a bit over your head."

Merlin scoffed at this, not rudely though, and, standing from his sitting position, moved so as to pat Gaius's back. Gaius turned slightly, eyebrow eternally raised, as Merlin smiled easily at the older man.

"I know that, really I do!" Merlin said as the physician fixed him with a look of disbelief, "But…" He remembered his words to Lancelot just that morning, "I can't back out now. I _can't_ Gaius."

Of all the people that Merlin had met since enlisting, Merlin knew that Gaius and Lancelot were the two that were the closest to him. They both seemed to understand him and be there for him in different ways, and Merlin couldn't see himself surviving in the environment he was in without them both. He patted Gaius once more on the shoulder, and the physician offered him a tired, accepting smile. The kind of smile that a parent gives their child when they were proud of them, but also worried. Merlin could barely remember the last time he had been on the receiving end of such a smile.

"Everything will end up alright, Gaius. I mean, cmon," He smiled lopsidedly and removed his hand from the man's shoulder, so as to extend both his arms, palms out, dramatically, "this is me we're talking about!"

Gaius chuckled and reached up so as to pat Merlin's shoulder, in a reciprocation of Merlin's earlier actions, "And that's precisely why I'm worried."

They both shared a smile, and Merlin tried to savor the moment.

* * *

The atmosphere of the bar - "It's a tavern, call it a _tavern_. Tavern sounds so much more medieval and edgy than _bar._" Gwaine had proclaimed - was far louder and rowdier than Arthur was able of putting up with at the moment. He was sandwiched between Leon and Percival, with a very out of place Merlin sitting across from him sandwiched between Gwaine and Lancelot. Elyan was still taking care of Gwen, and therefore unable to be present for what Gwaine had dubbed 'much needed relaxation and team bonding time' as he dragged the Round Table knights - plus one Merlin - out for a night on the town.

_Lucky bastard_. Arthur thought to himself in regards to Elyan, as he stared bitterly down into his mug. Merlin seemed to be doing the opposite, obviously new to the entire _alchohol_ thing, and though he had his hands curled loosely around the mug he was obviously looking everywhere but at it.

"-And then I said to him, 'I've probably been in every tavern from here to Essetir and further! Ya can't expect me to remember where I was on tha _one_ night' and then _he_ says to _me, _'Well if ya-"

Arthur wasn't really listening to Gwaine as the man prattled on about his bar hopping adventures. The man likely had thousands of stories all from previous assignments, posts where he had been stationed, or simply from his life before the military, but Arthur at the moment was not really interested in hearing them. He instead directed his attention back to Merlin, who had broken off from listening to Gwaine as well. The sorcerer and Lancelot were engaged in conversation, chatting somewhat stiltedly and yet still with an air of comfort around them.

"Merlin, didn't you say you were from Essetir originally?"

"Ah- Yeah. I think I'm technically still a citizen there too. Dual citizenship and all that- But yeah, I am."

Arthur glowered at the table as he continued to eavesdrop - though was it eavesdropping if they were all sitting at a table together? His father had informed him of Merlin's origins, had warned him to be cautious of the powerful sorcerer, and so this information was nothing new to the General.

"Cenred still rules there, right?"

This piqued Arthur's interests. Lancelot knew fully well of who ruled where, in fact, he was probably the one of their group who paid the most attention to such details. The man had previously been part of Intelligence before Arthur had recruited him for his team, and so if he was asking for answers that he already knew, then he was fishing for information. Perhaps he, like Uther, was suspicious of Merlin as well. The thought made Arthur feel slightly uncomfortable, an uncomfortableness that he could not pinpoint the origin of. Merlin had seemed so glad when Lancelot and Gwaine and the others had shown kindness towards him in the face of his own disdain, and if it turned out that Lancelot was just acting- Arthur dismissed the thoughts and returned to listening.

"Yeah, King Cenred and Queen Morgause. They're a… ha- ah they're a right pair of clot poles in all honesty. Perfect for each other, but the country would be better off without them."

"Queen Morgause? I hadn't heard news of Cenred taking a Queen." And there it was, Arthur knew the tell-tale signs that showed when Lancelot had gotten something. All there was left was to reel in the information.

"Yeah, they married very recently. She was his official advisor for magic before they married though." Merlin answered, a touch of bitterness seeping into his tone, "She's the main reason I… I left to come here to Camelot actually. Her regulations that she set for the use of magic turned us essentially into slaves. She preached freedom but put us in iron." Merlin shrugged and finally looked down into his still full mug of drink. "Camelot seemed a lot more inviting, even though it's still not ideal, it's better."

Lancelot nodded in empathy, but his eyes had the faraway look of a man lost in his thoughts. Arthur turned his head so that it appeared as though his attention was back upon Gwaine - who was gesturing wildly in time with the events of his story.

"And, Queen Morgause - she had magic too, right? Then why did she…?"

Just what had Lancelot so stuck upon the Queen of Essetir?

Merlin shrugged and finally took an experimental swig of his drink. He pulled back from the lip of the glass with a grimace, but swallowed it down anyways. Arthur wouldn't be surprised if one whiff off a barmaid's apron had him drunk.

"Hell if I know. I think she lost her family to magic or something. Thats the usual with those who end up killing sorcerers, even if they use magic themselves." Merlin was getting obviously bitter and upset now, and Arthur could see from the corner of his eye how Percival and Leon had subtly directed their hearing towards the conversing pair as well. "They think they're justified but they forget that we're people too." Lancelot frowned and put a hand on Merlin's shoulder in an act that Arthur knew was an attempt to placate the boy, but Merlin shrugged it off and continued on. The words had been bottled up for so long ever since the conversation with Uther Pendragon, that Merlin wasn't even sure if he could stop himself. "Everyone thinks that its okay to kill and be terrible to us cause 'oooooh I don't understand them but they're different and I heard a story of them doing something mean once!'" he took another gulp of his drink and grimaced again, "Well when you've had to fix your windows _five times_ in _three days_ cause idiots keep throwing rocks, and when someone you love _kills themselves_ so they don't get killed by someone else," Another, longer and deeper, gulp "Then I say, then come talk to me." He raised the drink again, and then Gwaine's hand was there, carefully sliding the mug away from the young sorcerer, sadness in his eyes.

"Ey mate, I think you're done there."

Merlin snorted, opened his mouth - most likely to comment about how that was his first glass of the night, and it was barely half done - but then closed his mouth and slumped his shoulders as all his ire faded out of him.

"Yeah, sorry everyone." He made eye contact with everyone except Arthur. "Guess I got carried away there." The sorcerer stood and smoothed down his, amusingly still smudged, uniform. He nudged Lancelot once and offered the man a smile that Lancelot mirrored back, but with the same concern in his eyes as the others at that table. "Ah… I'm gonna get going. Thanks for inviting me." He smiled lopsidedly, though the smile did not reach his eyes, and then he was loping away with that clumsy gait that he had. Arthur was constantly amazed at how someone so powerful could be so awkward in his every movement.

The sorcerer stood outside the establishment in the crisp night air for only a moment before his shadowed through the glass form was gone. Arthur slowly turned to face Lancelot as the door of the bar clicked shut behind Merlin, his expression serious.

"What are you thinking, First Lieutenant?" The General questioned.

Lancelot grimaced, but smiled, expression somewhat dulled by the emotions he was no doubt still feeling over all that Merlin exposed in his little verbal eruption. "Nothing." It was something. It was definitely something. Arthur could feel the first stirrings of suspicion poke at his mind. Perhaps it was something for the case. Perhaps it was something on Merlin specifically. Perhaps it was something unrelated to either of those topics, but it was definitely not _nothing_. Arthur watched as Lancelot shook his head then, and the man glanced as well to the other men gathered around the table. "Nothing at all," And then Lancelot stood, "But I think I'm going to head off as well. I've got some research to do." He finished, voice a whisper in the loudness of the bar. The pointed look to Arthur was not missed though, and the prince nodded subtly back. His suspicions were confirmed. It was certainly not nothing.

As the door swung shut behind Lancelot as well, Gwaine launched himself into another story, though his words lacked the enthusiasm that they had held at the beginning of the night. Arthur slid his mug away, sat back in his chair, and tried not to think too much. He didn't like how guilty Merlin's rant had left him feeling.


	9. 9

**AN: this chapter is a bit short, but hopefully you all enjoy it :)**

**Responses to reviews from Chapter 8:**

_**gingeeinthetardis - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it - and sadly, I don't have any current plans for Balinor being involved, other than having Merlin remember/mention him vaguely as a motivator for his own actions. **_

_**Lady Ningrum - heh, glad chapter 8 relaxed you, cause this one is gonna be a whirlwind - your feeling is (hopefully!) correct! thank you!**_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll - yEP I DID. :O ye definitely i'd wanna watch! (and i see that intended pun. squints. I see it) thank you amiko!**_

_**Virebax - haha, it was kinda filler kinda not. but i'm glad it worked with the rest of the story! Lance is one of my favorites of the knights too- he's a lot nicer and nobler than the actual Arthurian Legend Lancelot I can tell ya that. That Lancelot might've faked being kind to Merlin, but not this one. - and you said you couldn't wait, so here, you dont havta! :D enjoy! thaNK YOU!**_

_**toomanyfandomstopick - progress yes :D no but yeah Gwaine is 100% Havoc. Womanizer with some kinda alchohol/smoking problem and a sense of humor. Definitely 100%. they'd be best friends or worst enemies if they met. and ur mention of Arthur stealing one of his dates gave me an idea actually - perhaps once this story is done I'll post a series of one-shots that take place in this universe I've got set up! anyone like that idea?**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin or the elements of FMA that I am using!**

_**WARNING:**_ **decapitation (not the actual act) and a little violent mob mentality****  
**

* * *

9: Dead and Gone

"_Nothing." _

"_Nothing at all."_

"_But I think I'm going to head off as well. I've got some research to do."_

* * *

Arthur trembled and breathed as deeply as he dared to as he stood within the carefully crafted semi-circle of military policemen. The men were holding civilians back as the people clambered and stretched their necks so as to get a glimpse of the scene beyond the human wall. It made Arthur sick how they could be so interested and how they could have no moral qualms about staring at a dead man.

The killer had struck in broad daylight this time, and had left their victim out for all to see right in front of the military dorms. No warning, no cover of darkness, no odd ends of alley ways, nothing. The wall held a message just as the last two murders had, that was what connected them. Though this message resonated heavily in Arthur's mind, and lined up very closely, uncomfortably closely, with a few of the ideas from Merlin's rant from the night before.

'_FREE THE MAGIC' _was what was painted across the front of a building's store window. Visible from both the inside and the out, the message's translucent quality made it seem all the more haunting. The message wasn't Arthur's main concern though. He was more so focused upon the body whose blood had been used to paint it.

The head was missing - a first for the killer - but the uniformed body could not be mistaken for anyone other than the First Lieutenant Lancelot Du Lac.

"Leon," Arthur turned and snapped, cutting out his emotions at the moment to allow for him to rationally command his men, "phone Elyan. Tell him to keep Gwen away from both here and central. Tell him to just keep her at home all day and not tell her anything." Leon's face - which had previously held so much grief - closed off skillfully just as Arthur's had, and he nodded in understanding of his new small assignment. "Gwaine," Arthur next turned to, the only other one of their team present. "Find Merlin. Keep him away too. Have him read Gwen's statement a thousand times or take him to Gaius or- something." Arthur gestured with his hands somewhat frantically, but worked to calm himself. He could see Gwaine's solemn expression and searching eyes even as he looked away, and mumbled as almost an afterthought the excuse of, "I just don't want him throwing up again, alright?"

"...Alright."

Then Gwaine was gone, pushing off through the line of policemen and the crowd beyond. Arthur was left standing alone, with Lancelot lying, sitting up and slumped, just at his feet.

To only think that they had been in the company of this man not even a day ago. They had talked and laughed with him and he had talked and laughed in return. Then Lancelot had left, and now he would never be coming back.

"What research is worth this Lancelot?" Arthur whispered bitterly to the headless body, "What did you find that they killed you for?"

He had no delusions of his friend just being chosen from a hat, a uniform to make the message something more. _Look at your government. We will bring them down for magic. We will bring them down for you. _No, Arthur knew that whatever it was that Lancelot had said was "Nothing" - that he had picked up on _only yesterday _- was exactly what had led to his body being put up for display in the center of the city. Lancelot had gotten close to the killer, and in doing so he had died in the line of duty for his country.

Arthur knew he would have to call Morgana and inform her. The General sighed heavily and turned away from the body of his friend, though facing the tumultuous crowd was hardly any better. He knew he couldn't keep the king out of the situation anymore, as much as he had tried. It was bad enough when only citizens had been the targets - _magic hating citizens - _but now the killer had branched into killing off military personnel, and had raised the stakes of the game even higher.

The people that were held back by the police were starting to get loud, and Arthur stared at them all with a straight face as they screamed and rushed and clambered to be heard over one another. _This _was exactly what he had been trying to avoid by using so much secrecy. This wave of people, all with different opinions on magic, being presented with physical proof of just how terrible and wickedly the art could be used. There was a high chance of a civil war now, perhaps even an all out magic versus non-magic one. Arthur's heart clenched. He was not looking forward to that. Perhaps if he were his younger self, he'd be the loudest voice petitioning for sorcerers and witches to be put in their place. But now? - Lancelot's gaping neck laughed at his back - Now he didn't know where he stood.

The chief of the military police slid up beside Arthur then, catching his attention, "Sir," He began gruffly, "the crowd is getting a bit difficult to control. We haven't yet brought out any firearms though. What are your orders?"

Arthur's lips dipped in a frown that was more of a grimace, and he did not turn away from the line of policemen that stood between him and the Camelot citizens beyond. "Just keep expanding this little circle we've got. Push them back and then threaten arrests if they continue to try and cross the tape." He said in reference to the yellow lines of tape that many men held, trying in vain to find a place to set them up so as to mark off the murder scene. He knew that in reality, the tape would do little to hold off a crowd of people if they chose to stomp all around the delicate area, but it was the intimidation factor that he was counting on. Police tape that read in all capital letters "DO NOT CROSS" paired with multiple military personnel and the threat to arrest would, all combined, hopefully do the trick.

An unexpected wave of angry noises came from the crowd, as Arthur watched someone abruptly push their way through the sea of bodies. He watched with disdain as the brave citizen approached, and could almost make out the top of their head and the head of whoever was following quickly behind them. The second man was taller, following after the first person as they crashed through and- wait- Arthur squinted closer as the two came into view- it was Gwaine and Merlin. The General felt his anger rise within him as he spotted the two, Merlin looking white as a ghost, uniform ruffled and sleeves pushed up revealing his silver wristlet, and Gwaine looking red as a tomato. Arthur growled, he had specifically instructed the Lieutenant Colonel to keep the Court Sorcerer _away. _

Though perhaps- Arthur mused as Merlin crashed his way through the line of uniforms and fisted his thin hands in the General's collar - what with the crime scene being right in front of the military dorms, he had given Gwaine a harder assignment than he had originally thought.

"When were you gonna tell me, huh?" Merlin raged boldly, pale face making the redness around his eyes stand out hauntingly, "Were you just gonna leave it out of the file like you did everything else? Were you?" Arthur allowed for the thinner man to shake him, and simply stared impassively down into the angry face that was so close to his. Merlin's eyes weren't full of anger like every other line of his body was though, his eyes instead seemed terribly confused and scared.

"Stand down, Major." Arthur said once Merlin had finished speaking. He brought his far larger hands up and curled them around the sorcerer's wrists, not tightly or unkindly as he might've done when he had first met Merlin, but with just enough force to get the clenched tight fists to release and lower. Merlin was still breathing heavily, but as Arthur lowered his hands he seemed to notice the attention that he had gathered. A new sorcerer, shaking in a frenzy the shoulders of the General and Prince, while Gwaine stood behind them looking haggard and apologetic. Merlin stepped back and pulled his hands away, still looking like a ghost, as he realized just where he was as well, a semicircle of people and police, with the body of his friend lying behind him.

Arthur knew what would happen the moment before Merlin seemed to, as did Gwaine. Both men lunged just in time for one each to grab an arm and keep Merlin from turning to see just what had become of the noble Lancelot.

The crowd rumbled angrily, and it's collective volume began to rise and swell. "_Let him see what his kind has done!" "Probably angry that someone else did it before he could. Filthy sorcerer's'r all the same." "The man died for our country and you're lettin a sorcerer near 'is body? Talk about contaminatin a crime scene!" "Y'should get that dog put down!" _

Arthur didn't realize what happened until Merlin's head jerked once, sharply, and then the man went still in his arms. He glanced to Merlin, eyes immediately seeing the rough gash that had just begun to bleed deeply on the side of his forehead. Someone had thrown a rock, and they had hit their mark.

Gwaine roared and released Merlin's arm, shouting words that Arthur didn't hear as he pulled Merlin back away from the crowd and towards a safe spot to slip away near the side of the semicircle of policemen. The sorcerer was obviously in shock, eyes finally having found Lancelot and never having left, as he let his own blood run down his head much like the blood of his friend was running across stone. Arthur cursed and tried to spin Merlin upon noticing what had captured the boy's attention, one hand on each bony shoulder. He was unsuccessful, as Merlin simply turned his head and craned it awkwardly to keep his eyes upon the dead body.

"Damnit Merlin, don't look. That's an order." Arthur finally hissed as they broke from the semi-circle, the command hardly necessary as their line of sight to the body was cut off when the policemen slid back into place. Merlin said nothing, but finally moved his head so as to look in front of himself rather than behind.

"That- I- I'm sorry." Merlin gulped around his words.

"I know." Arthur stated simply, not entirely listening as he focused quickly upon trying to steer the boy under his command far enough away so that the crowd's taunts and screams could not be heard. Merlin continued to babble though, just like he had the night before. Once he had gotten started it all seemed to run out of the shocked, frazzled boy like a river. Arthur grit his teeth as he continued to shove Merlin forward, struggling just to get him to put one foot in front of the other. This was getting ridiculous. Powerful though the boy may be, he certainly wasn't suited to military life and all the gruesome bits that came with it.

Granted though that this probably would be the last time for awhile that Merlin would have to see a dead body, let alone a decapitated one. Arthur was very much aware of the fact that now that one of his team had been made a victim, they all were too close to the case and would have to be replaced with another team in order to keep the investigation going smoothly. Gwaine wouldn't let it go without a fight though, neither would Percival - the man had been surprisingly close to Lancelot; they both had enlisted together and had been stationed together for quite a long time - and Arthur knew Merlin too would be fighting tooth and nail now to hunt this killer down.

That is, once the sorcerer _calmed down._

Having finally deemed them a safe distance from the crime scene, Arthur spun Merlin by his shoulders so that they were face to face. "_Major_!" He barked, to silence Merlin's ramblings. Merlin jolted as if slapped - an idea that Arthur had entertained, but had been hesitant to carry out due to the cut on Merlin's head - blue eyes going wide and clearing somewhat of the fog that had descended over them. For a moment, neither man did anything, and then slowly Merlin reached one hand, twisting it around Arthur's arms, to touch the wound upon his head. His expression hardened, and Arthur could finally see some of the power he had been told so much about.

"I'm going to kill them."

Arthur's grip on Merlin's shoulders tightened, and he shook him slightly once, nothing more than a trembling. "I could lock you up just for saying those words - you can't kill civilians." He said, warning him like an equal and admonishing him like he were a slow child in the same breath.

Merlin shook his head, "The murderer, I'm going to kill them. I'm not letting them do what they do anymore."

Ah, so Arthur had misunderstood. The General released his grip and stepped back from Merlin, but remained close enough to grab onto the sorcerer in case he did something rash. "You still can't do that. We'd also have to _find_ them first, Merlin."

But Merlin wasn't listening, he just kept shaking his head. "They're sick in the head. And they're doing this all the wrong way. And they killed Lancelot - last night we had just been..."

Merlin's eyes went wide, and he let out a gurgled, guilty sound, "It's my fault!" he cried suddenly, startling Arthur into widening his own stormy eyes. "Something I told him must've- something _I _said led him to-"

Head wound be damned, Arthur slapped Merlin across the face.

Merlin stopped talking immediately, head not snapping to the side as it would have if the slap had been forceful and violent, but still rocking slightly.

"Listen to me and listen good, Major." Arthur snapped, unsure of why he was going to such lengths to comfort and reassure, "First rule: No man is worth your tears." Merlin's face turned thunderous at that, but Arthur plowed onwards, "Second rule: It's no one's fault but the person's who's doing the killing, and I _really_ doubt that that's you."

Merlin wiped a hand against the bloody spot on his head, perhaps - Arthur thought - just then feeling the sting of the gash in the wake of the slap he had been given. He smeared the bright red blood down his face and across his hand. His eyes looked haunted, his face hollow.

"...It doesn't matter," _But it did_, "I'm still going to kill them. Whoever did this to Lancelot- to all those other people- _I'm going to kill them_."


	10. 10

**AN: oh my gosh the reactions to the previous chapter were fantASTIC. I never knew killing off a character could be so satisfying. I love Lancelot to bits, honestly, but his role in the series made him the perfect Hughes. From here on out, things will be pickin up the pace pretty quickly. Enjoy! **

**Responses to reviews on chapter 9:**

_**fairy goatmother - :D thank you! Sorry to make you sputter-**_

_**EasilyDistractedBookworm - thank you so much!**_

_**Archadian07 - hehe, this chapter is bein posted on a Tuesday- no decapitation currently, but eh it still counts right? :D thanks!**_

_**Lady Ningrum- (oo ye it seems ur in denial- I'm sorry! - and heavens no I could never kill Gwaine! Neeeeverrrrr ) thank you for the review! :)**_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll- now that you've seen 4.01 and 4.02 do u understand why Lance was the perFECT Hughes type character? (Cries- they all fit FMA archetypes so well- I can definitely see Mordred as 2003 Wrath btw-) (and geT UR PUNS OUTTA HERE- ilu Amiko thank youuuu)**_

_**Virebax - the reviews were the best part though :) heheheh- (I'm not evil I swear- I say as i smirk like Morgana on a good day) Merlin will be passed all these hugs eventually, yes! Thank you!**_

_**toomanyfandomstopick - I'm teying to keep this story very Merlin-verse orientented when it comes to plot and characters, so blame the setting for any FMA parallels. The worlds honestly mesh so easily when you line them up right, but the plot is still going to be uniquely from my own mind, so hopefully it won't be FMA canon like or Merlin canon like! Well, it may be closer to Merlin canon than FMA canon at least. I'm glad you are enjoying the subtle parallels though! (And yES ive read Dailies- it's one of my all time facordite FMA fics. If I do end up doing a sort of slice of life oneshot compilation of this universe, i can only dream that it will be as funny yet serious as Dailies.) thank you!**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or the FMA elements I am using in this fic!**

**no warnings for this chapter **

* * *

10: _Crashed and Burned_

Arthur had outright refused to allow Merlin anywhere on his own, much to Merlin's frustration. He had quickly informed Gwaine of where he and the sorcerer were headed, and then had practically dragged a still bleeding Merlin back to their base, aka, the team's office in central command. Normally, he would've sent Merlin back with one of the military policemen as an escort, but he had to call Morgana anyways, so this was merely killing two birds with one stone.

Arthur sat Merlin down at his desk, shoved a wag of paper towels into his hands, and commanded him to "Stay." much like one would a dog. He then stomped into his office, and, trusting that Merlin would stay in place and continue glaring at him - closed door in the way or not - he shut the door. The conversation that would follow was not one he wanted any of his subordinates to overhear, much less a fiery raging emotional Merlin like the one he had left out in the main office.

On the fifth ring, when Arthur had just begun to think that he'd have to go over to the king's office and face the wicked witch himself, Morgana picked up the phone.

"Well hello Arthur, what a nice surprise."

Arthur ignored the thick, syrupy, professional way in which Morgana spoke when on the phone even when talking to family, and spoke quickly without a greeting first. "There's been another murder."

"Hmm yes, I heard about that. I didn't go down to visit though because the way you reacted last time I stopped by was just so pleasant."

Arthur shut his eyes, not even wondering how Morgana could have heard the news so quickly, "It was Lancelot."

Silence.

"... do you want me to inform Uther?"

With a snort, Arthur pressed his fingers to his temple, eyes still shut. "Well I can hardly say no can I?" He tried to ignore the touch of hysteria in his tone. Morgana definitely had heard it though, and hopefully she'd be a decent human being and ignore it. One of his men - one of his friends - had just been killed. No one could honestly blame him for losing it a little after having to keep a strong front every other moment of the day.

Morgana hummed softly, sympathetically, "No, I don't think so. What should I say?"

Arthur thought it odd that she was asking him to clarify what the king was to be told, but told her anyways, "Just… tell him that my team's been targeted, and if he deems us unfit to continue the investigation, then I will pull my men from this case."

He could practically see Morgana nodding as she noted down the words, then for awhile, neither brother nor sister spoke. It was always frightening when someone close died or was killed, it brought the reality of their lives and jobs to the forefront of their minds, and though Morgana's job did not directly require her to work out in the field, she knew through watching Arthur just how difficult it was.

Arthur heard Morgana breath a deep sigh on the other end of the line, "What are you going to do now?" She asked calmly, not pityingly, no, but with an air of collectedness that let Arthur know it was time to push his emotions aside and get some work done.

"Damage control." He stated back, "Body's out in the open this time. And someone threw a rock at Merlin when he showed up."

For a moment, Morgana said nothing. A chill went through Arthur then, though he had no idea why. "People can be barbarians sometimes." Morgana finally huffed, "Have fun with that."

Arthur dug his fingers deeply into his temple and groaned, "Yeah, thanks. I will." He muttered, and then without any sort of notice, he hung up. Morgana would likely kill him for that later, but Arthur really didn't care at the moment. He cared more about Gwaine, still left down fighting the crowd and getting information about the crime scene. He cared more about Gwen, oblivious to the new level of tragedy the case had entered for her personally after she had so cruelly been made to watch the last murder. He cared more about Percival, about Leon, about Elyan, who had lost a brother, a team member, a friend, and would be forced to not seek out justice or closure. He also - though he'd never admit it, and if he did he'd only do so grudgingly - cared for Merlin, who must've been through hell and back already in his lifetime, only to be dragged into this mess.

That was his problem, the General realized as he glanced to the broken picture frame he had set back up on his desk after he had broken it by accident that morning after meeting Merlin. The picture within was creased along where the back had folded and cracked. That was his problem, he cared too damn much.

When Arthur pushed open the door of his office, he fully expected to not see Merlin there, and to have to hunt him down and toss him in a cell for a night for insubordination. Surprisingly though, Merlin was there, still sitting at his desk, and he looked up to reveal his face, now with less blood on it than before, to Arthur. He looked smaller, thinner, younger, without murderous intent and blood smeared across his brow, and Arthur felt his heart clench at the look that Merlin was giving him.

"What now?" Merlin breathed after a moment, a moment in which neither man realized they had not moved.

Arthur straightened his uniform somewhat, and strode across the room to the door that led from it, not looking at Merlin the entire way, "Now, you stay here, while I go back to the scene, gather up the rest of my men, bring them back here for debriefing and other fun official things, and try to determine if anyone needs any therapy."

Merlin frowned at Arthur's obviously non-serious tone, and his gaze turned cold. Arthur didn't see the change though, only heard Merlin's tone of voice, "How can you joke at a time like this? Lancelot is-"

Arthur cut him off, as if his personal mission was to keep everyone from dwelling upon their fallen friend for too long, "Yes well sometimes in times like these, a man needs to joke and have fun in his life." He said, hand clenching around the handle, but voice gently explanatory.

Merlin's face crumpled in understanding, "Because he knows each day might be his last."

Arthur nodded sharply, and left the office.

* * *

"Ey, Merlin, how's the head?"

Merlin jerked his head up from his desk - no he had certainly not been taking a nap no not at all - as a fist knocked playfully against his newly bandaged skull. Gwaine stood there, looking haggard and a bit worse for the wear, but he smiled down at the sorcerer all the same. Percival and Leon had entered the office behind Gwaine, and we're far more solemn, hovering around their desks as if awaiting an order. Elyan was no where to be found - probably still with Gwen, Merlin's mind supplied. Arthur was oddly absent as well.

At least, until he wasn't. The General poked his head into the room a moment later, and made an odd hand motion that his squad seemed to understand- but that Merlin didn't. Luckily, as he sat there somewhat stupefied while the rest of the men suddenly began to conduct themselves quietly and covertly, Gwaine grabbed his shoulder and began to lead him from the office.

"'Kay, Merlin, buddy, what you're about to see, no one has seen before." The man said dramatically.

Merlin, still pale from the day's earlier events, looked at Gwaine dubiously as he followed the group, "... Well I'm honored."

Gwaine smiled, but even Merlin noticed how it didn't reach his eyes. It was clear in the lines of the man's face and in the shoulders of everyone there that the sorcerer wasn't the only one still shaken.

"Well ya should be." Gwaine said, clapping Merlin on the shoulder.

The group came to a stop beside a small, nondescript door. It looked more to be the entrance to a broom closet than the entrance to an office. None the less, as Arthur ushered his team in, Merlin found himself staring at a magnificent round table, made of clean and shining wood, sitting far too big in the center of the room. The door clicked shut behind him, and the sorcerer stood awkwardly in front of it as every man took what looked to be their usual place.

There were two empty chairs left over. One for Elyan, and one for Lancelot.

Merlin walked forward, and hesitantly sat down in what he hoped was Elyan's place. If it wasn't, no one stopped him or told him differently.

"... What is this?" Merlin finally asked, speaking up in the silence that no one seemed willing to break.

Arthur leaned forward and rested his elbows upon the tabletop, fingers threading together, "This is a secret office, and everything said in here can be repeated no where else." He emphasized his command by holding eye contact with Merlin for a moment, but then looked away from Merlin to turn his address to the rest of the men, "The meeting of the Round Table can now begin."

Gwaine and Percival snorted - apparently Arthur never began meetings so dramatically. Merlin felt his own smirk crawling onto his face, but the General cut them off as he continued speaking.

"We will possibly get pulled from this case."

A beat of silence, and then Gwaine was up and stomping for the door. Percival got to him first, the large silent man hooking his arms beneath Gwaine's armpits and having to practically drag the Lieutenant Colonel back to his seat, Gwaine fighting all the way.

"They can't do that." Came the surprising protest from Leon. All heads turned to the man, who was normally the most law abiding of their group, and they saw the cracks in his eyes. "Hopefully, sir, you understand that as well." Ah, so he hadn't been protesting, merely stating a fact. It was true that, now that it had become personal, the little squad that Arthur commanded would never give up until the maniac who killed their friend was off the streets. The fact that they were currently sitting in their secret office was testament to the fact that Arthur knew this, and had a plan to help them surreptitiously hunt out the murderer.

"Do you have any faith in me Leon?" Arthur sighed as he sat back in his chair. "That was the first thing I understood."

Gwaine smiled, Percival released his friend, and Merlin breathed out a sigh.

"I'm still not letting you kill the murderer though, Merlin."

Merlin groaned and dropped his head, while wide eyes from the others turned and suddenly all the attention was back on him. "It's not like they wouldn't deserve it..."

"Yes, but the thing is your reputation doesn't deserve it. You're new, you're powerful, and you don't need to have 'killed the culprit' written across the top of your first case report." Arthur explained before derailing the conversation and launching into a new one, giving out orders with a strong kind of stable confidence that seemed to come naturally, "Anyways- we've gone too long without a lead of any kind. We need to get on that, whether we're on the case still or not. Merlin, you're the only one of us with any kind of clue as to who this asshole could be, I want you constantly vigilant and monitoring everyone for any indication as to if they are the murderer, or associating with them." The sorcerer in question nodded, quickly and professionally, to acknowledge his understanding of his new orders. He would not be useless like Arthur had said he was, he would not.

"Gwen needs to be kept under heavy guard." Arthur continued after Merlin's nod, "I don't want the murderer getting to her again. Everyone goes places in pairs as well. This killer is close, and we can't risk them getting at us again the way they got to Lancelot so easily."

As the General paused, Percical smoothly leaned forward, "What makes you say they are close, sir?" He asked, voice emotionless except for the inflection that all questions naturally possessed.

Arthur sighed and leaned back, solemnly looking into the eyes of each of his Round Table knights. "We pulled Merlin in on the case, they got scared, and targeted someone close to us specifically. They knew who Gwen was to us, where she lived, and when Merlin joined the team. Lancelot picked up on some information, whether from his conversation with Merlin last night or from the crime scene earlier this week, and the killer knew that he picked up on whatever it was almost immediately. He was given no time to contact anyone, no time to even change out of his uniform." His men had all gone pale as the truth of Arthur's words sunk in, "I'm willing to bet my rank that the killer is in this very base at this very moment."

No time was given for the four other men to react, as at that moment a knock echoed upon the door. Arthur shot to his feet, as did Percival, Gwaine, and Leon. Yet Merlin moved oppositely to them, and crashed to the ground. The sorcerer had cried out in pain abruptly, and had slid from his chair to the floor, with his right hand pushing at his left forearm as he curled, trembling, around whatever was harming him. The door to the secret office crashed inwards just as Arthur caught a glimpse of the metal wristlet around Merlin's wrist. It was glowing a hot, dangerous red.


	11. 11

**AN: Eeehh this chapter feels rushed to me. Didn't really flow like the last couple ones have been doing. Especially the end feels gross. Oh well, hopefully you all still enjoy it! **

**Responses to reviews on chapter 10:**

_**shelle-ma-belle - didn't anyone ever teach ya not to ask plot revealing questions outright! shhhhh i can't tell ya that**_

_**EasilyDistractedBookworm - thank you! :D and yep, Gwaine is safe. Just like Lancelot was safe :) (but no really, I don't plan on killing Gwaine.) and on the topic of freya... to quote chapter 8: "and when someone you love kills themselves **__**so they don't get killed by someone else," Another, longer and deeper, gulp "Then I say, then come talk to me." " :D :D :D**_

_**Virebax - yep, the wristlet had always been suspicious right? heheh - and you'll see what Uther's thinking, in this chapter actually- yep. Thank you very much for reviewing and liking this story and ahhhh thank you**_

_**Said the Liar 13 - hmmm how twisted it would be indeed... :D thank you for the review and thank you for everything!**_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll - (yells ahhhh that typo is probably because I published that last chapter from my phone- stupid autocorrect ughhfghghgh. i'll fix it eventually) ahHhhHAhahAHhahhhh- yep, same merlin time, same merlin everything :D thank you amikooo**_

_**Lady Ningrum - oooh i like all your theories. hehehe they're very interestingggg - thank you for the review and for enjoying this story!**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or the FMA elements I am using in this story**

**_WARNING:_ severe burning used as torture/to subdue someone**

* * *

11: _Discovered and Replaced_

Uther Pendragon strode into the room through the ruined door, guards flanking him and with Morgana hurrying in at his heels. She looked terribly apologetic, face pale and eyes wide, but Uther looked anything but apologetic. His face was a cold, cruel mask as he spared barely a glance to the secret room he stood in and the secret table in front of him - Arthur did not want to think of what this meant, if it that meant his father had _always known_ of his secret office, or if - No, the king only had eyes for the sorcerer crumpled in pain at his feet.

"Father, what is the meaning of this-?!" Arthur burst out as he watched everything he had so carefully worked to keep secure begin to fall apart.

Uther did not respond to his son, and instead addressed Merlin as a pair of guards each grabbed an arm and hauled the poor boy to his feet. Merlin's left arm twitched, and the metal still glowed with heat as he bit deeply into his lip to keep from crying out as he was pulled up. "Major Merlin Emrys, you are being charged with crimes against Camelot and the crown." Uther said, his tone of voice an odd mix between blind with rage and controlled, emotionless, necessity. Either way, his tone demanded respect and attention, and each word had the attention of everyone in the room. "These crimes include the use of magic to murder Camelot citizens, one of which being First Lieutenant Lancelot Du Lac, and of treason by conspiring with the enemy kingdom of Essetir."

Merlin's wide blue eyes stared at the king, only for a moment before they clenched shut in pain once more. The metal band on his wrist began to burn brighter, and Arthur felt sick as he thought of the severe burns that no doubt lied beneath the metal. Merlin would no doubt bear the scar for the rest of his life, would forever be branded. Arthur never knew that the wristlets could be used in such a way or cause such harm, and this surprised him. Being the son of the king as well as a high ranking General, almost no piece of information was kept from him. To think that what he had thought originally was just a tool for marking and monitoring was really a device for torture. Torture that Merlin did not deserve.

"I'm sorry, my lord," Arthur said, dropping the informal 'Father' that he had called Uther earlier, hoping to appease to the man through titles and honorifics. He stepped forward professionally, despite how his heart beat faster each second that he metal on Merlin's wrist still glowed and that his fingers still spasmed, "But your accusations are false. I have the records of each time the Major here has used magic since joining my team, and no where does it say that he used his magic to behead someone, much less Lancelot, who was a close friend to Merlin." Uther's cold eyes slid to him, and Arthur straightened his back, "If you like, sire, you can see the records for yourself."

The king of Camelot sniffed, "I've no need to, it's all _lies_." He said with a bitter final tone that left no room for anyone to object.

But object they did. Gwaine made a motion as if to step forward and throttle the king, but one of Percival's large tree trunks of arms folded itself across the long haired man's chest and tugged him back. Gwaine managed to yell out anyways, even as he pushed against Percival and as Leon rushed to help, "How the bloody hell could it be lies?! We can all clearly see that that _torture device_ on his wrist isn't faulty!"

Uther bared his teeth at Gwaine, and the empty handed guards behind the king tensed, ready for an order to restrain the Lieutenant Colonel much like Merlin was currently being restrained. Uther, however, held a hand up and addressed Gwaine himself. "How dare you speak to me in such a way, you _commoner." _

Gwaine thrashed in Percival's grip, "_Commoner-_!" Percy put his hand over Gwaine's mouth.

"P-please sire-" a stuttering voice spoke up, directing each set of eyes away from the tension between Gwaine and the king and instead towards the trembling accused sorcerer, "the records t-tell the truth. I am not the m-murderer you seek." Merlin said as strongly as he could - and dared - lifting his head to try and make eye contact with the frightening man that ruled the country. He made eye contact with Arthur instead, and was surprised to see how torn up the prince looked. Merlin quickly slid his eyes away.

Uther noticed the movement of Merlin's eyes, and suddenly his arm shot forwards. Merlin's jaw became gripped in a tight, gloved hand. There was no doubt that the fingers digging into his cheeks would leave bruises. "You will be tried when I deem fit," Uther said slowly to Merlin, leaving no room for argument as he stared into the boy's wide and trembling eyes, "until then, you shall be held in the nearest jail, and your magic shall be restrained."

Arthur was sure Merlin's expression would not have changed if he had been given a death sentence instead. The sorcerer looked wide eyed and terrified, especially at the prospect of having his magic bound- but he also looked accepting at the obvious fact that arguing or pleading his case would do nothing, and _that_ was what made the entire situation worse in Arthur's eyes.

Uther released Merlin's jaw roughly, practically tossing the boy's head away, and then wiped his gloved hand against his pants as if touching Merlin had gotten them dirty. He nodded to the guards, and the two large uniformed men dragged Merlin towards the kicked in door. The sorcerer's feet stumbled as he tried to keep up, but their tips became scuffed more with each clumsy attempt to get his footing. Arthur and his team watched with a sort of detached horror as their friend was guided over the splintered wood, out into the hallway, and then away. Gwaine let out an angry, wrathful sound from behind Percival's hand, and Arthur felt his heart pulse similarly. Merlin was obviously innocent, so what had prompted his father to do this? Was it just his lifelong grudge against magic-users coming into play? Was he looking for an excuse to instate a new round of laws to oppress that part of the population while the hunt for the true murderer went on in the background? Or did he _truly believe_ that Merlin Emrys was a cold blooded beheader? Whatever the explanation, it didn't matter, it didn't matter at all to anyone in the room at that moment in time.

With another sharp nod, the other guards left, picking their way over the broken door and disappearing down the hallway as well. Remaining in the room were Arthur, Leon, Gwaine - still restrained by Percy, - Percival - still restraining Gwaine, - Morgana, and Uther. The king gave the broken door at his feet the same look of disgust he had given Merlin, whether likening the splintered and broken door to a sorcerer or a sorcerer to an inanimate object was unclear, before he looked up and addressed his son.

"A replacement sorcerer will be assigned to your team as soon as possible. You wanted one by your side, and now you shall never be without." Arthur opened his mouth, eyes having gone wide in confusion at the sudden announcement and the bitter, mocking tone, but a quick shake of the head from Morgana - who stood behind Uther - had him snapping his jaw up and closing his mouth. He would listen for now, but later he _would_ figure everything out.

Uther continued speaking, strolling leisurely to the round table as if he were merely observing a piece of art in a museum. "And this will have to be removed immediately. If I'd known this room had existed sooner, this eyesore would have been gone a long time ago." He snorted, rapping gloved knuckles against the warm wood surface. Arthur breathed out through his nose and kept his hands folded behind him - so his father _hadn't_ known about the Round Table room until this moment. Someone had either informed him, or Merlin's wristlet had been a tracker as well as a torturer. The latter seemed far more likely than any of his men betraying him, and Arthur could tell that his men had come to the same conclusion as Leon's eyes hardened, Percival's grip tightened, and Gwaine grunted.

"Yes sir." Arthur answered. He'd construct a new room another day, a new table another time, but right now all that mattered was pleasing the king so that he would _leave_ all the quicker.

Uther sent a sharp glance to his son, but then looked back to the table, using it as an anchor for his gaze. "The Lieutenant Colonel," he began, speaking as if Gwaine weren't in the room, "Will have to be reassigned. Possibly demoted. A man like this-" The man had gone still in Percival's arms, looking back and forth from father to son, pleading with one and hating the other, "-cannot be trusted to remain calm in the necessary situations if he cannot remain calm when an offender of the law is apprehended."

_Not to mention he stood up to you, you old tyrant. _Arthur felt he could hear Morgana whisper the words directly into his mind, bitterness thick within their vowels, and he shook his head to dislodge the odd shuddering wave that had passed over him. He had no idea where the thought in Morgana's voice had come from, but he did not want it to return.

"...Yes sir." Arthur finally said, not looking at his friends. Gwaine made a sound of objection, and finally forced his way out of Percival's hold.

"If I may sir, I will dismiss myself now then." The man snarled, still pushing his much larger friend's arms away. Uther looked upon him as if he were nothing more than a small dog that he would not grant attention to, and Arthur didn't know what to feel. "I formally resign from service." Gwaine finished. Then he stomped away dramatically, forcefully cracking a bit of the wooden door beneath the heel of his boots. Arthur gave a swift nod to Percy, and the large man followed without a word, understanding exactly what he needed to do. Gwaine would come around, Gwaine would understand, but until everything was able to be pulled back together, Arthur would hold the pieces of the operation together on his own the best he could.

Uther had watched the entire scene with disinterest, then looked upon his son with a smug look that very practically screeched '_I told you so.'_

"Will that be all, sir?" Arthur bit out, back still straight. He wanted his father _gone_ from this room. He wanted _everyone _gone.

Uther gave one last glance to his surroundings. "Yes, that is all." Then the king left, as if he _hadn't _just torn down everything that the round table team had been working towards.

_How dare he. _Whispered Morgana's voice again. Arthur shot her a glance, but her eyes were upon Uther's back, the green circles wide with all that had just transpired. The General shook himself again, trying to dislodge the thick, black presence he could feel at the edge of his mind.

The room was left quiet, with only Leon, Arthur, and Morgana standing in the wake. Arthur could still feel the ripples bouncing off of him and trying to push him backwards, backwards to where his round table stood, once a symbol of justice and unity, now nothing more than wood to be broken up for an executioner to make a pyre of.

It went without saying who the pyre would be for.

* * *

Three days went by, with no news of Merlin's trial, and with no new headless victims popping up in the streets. Despite this, the citizens continued to raise their levels of protesting and violence, raging against each other both for magic and against it. Arthur watched, numbly, as the round table was broken apart and as the room was re-bugged with monitoring devices. Gwaine never came back to the main office or the central command center, but Percival had, looking tired and weaker than he had ever looked before. It was wrong for the man to look such a way. The entire situation they were in was just _so wrong_.

Arthur's personal office door creaked open on that third day. After the swift knock, a curly head of dark hair poked its way in, followed by a silver wristlet clad body, and the wrongness increased ten fold.

"Who're you." Arthur muttered, glaring at the boy - for that truly was what he was, a mere boy. He was no doubt younger than Merlin had been, but he also was no doubt less powerful. He didn't hold himself the same way Merlin had, and his eyes weren't dark with the same untold potential either.

The boy snapped to salute, blue eyes looking into the distance just above Arthur's forehead. Arthur straightened himself in his desk chair and eyed the terrible metal around the boy's left wrist once more. This must have been the new sorcerer his father had told him would be assigned to his team. This must have been the man who would be replacing Merlin.

"Major Mordred Camlann at your service, sire."


	12. 12

**AN: Hereeeeee's 12! Sorry its so late! I actually broke the F key on my computer recently, so that made things a bit more difficult while writing, and extended what could've been an acceptable pause into an unacceptable pause. Haha- ah well, enjoy!**

**Responses to Reviews from chapter 11:**

**_RighteousHate - haha yep! sorry for the quick turn, I'm not very good with pacing stories/when info is given out actually- as might be apparent in this chapter. Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoy it!_  
**

**_merlinfan42 - thank you! and ahh sorry for killing Lance early, but he had to die early to push the plot on in the direction i wanted it to go! call it... motivation for the rest of the characters :) Thank you, and you'll see!_**

**_GingerO.o - Yep! Enter Mordred! thank you for the review_**

**_EasilyDistractedBookworm - omg, ur review made me laugh actually oh goodness- thank you!_**

**_DarkMousyRulezAll - yeEEESS MORdred! and unknowingly or knowingly- hmm that IS the question :D Thank you for the review and the support amiko! (i'll review ur stories once i can think of the words to properly convey how gr8 they are!)_**

**_Said the Liar 13 - heey! (oh and don't worry- I've got somethin planned for Uther. believe me, I hate him too) and yep, the whole team is gettin messed up. thanks for the review!_**

**_Virebax - nope! No dark ending planned. I'm a big action and mystery and suspense writer, not so much a darkfic or angst writer (as can be seen when I tried writing Greatest Need- I ended up messing Merlin's mindset up completely and backtracting in our boy's emotional development a lot so that he didn't seem "too evil." ughghhHHHghh) and Uther didn't mean anything other than that he was unwilling to look at the reports. He's such a jerk yknow. and Mordred's surname aahh thank you for calling attention to that- I couldn't think of anything better (couldn't very well call him Mordred Druid or Mordred Orkney could I? I suppose I could've called him Mordred May- but whateverrrr) and everyone knows in both the legends and the show that Mordred is mainly famous for his and Arthur's last stand at Camlann, so i just thought it was so perfect :D thank you!_**

**_Lady Ningrum - hmm Uther may want that- he may *shrug!* :D and sorry I'm making you doubt your theories- but all will be revealed in time! thank you for the review! _**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or the FMA elements I am using in this story**

_**WARNING:**_** no warning for this chapter except for a description of a very severe burn**

* * *

12: _Whispered and Remembered_

Camelot did not uphold its jails to the same standard that it did the rest of the city, as Arthur found apparent while he walked through the dank, poorly lit hallways of the jail where Merlin had been locked up inside of. The walls were old, darkened stone, that dripped suspiciously with moisture of unknown origins. The lights were thin tube bulbs that were strapped in hastily and carelessly to their cases on the ceiling, and the General feared as he walked that one might succumb to gravity and fall on him. He couldn't imagine Merlin in this environment at all, he just couldn't. The boy was far too cheeky and confident and _good_ to be here.

And yet, here he was. And so here too was Arthur, being led by a guard to the cell where his team's now ex-sorcerer was being held. The inmates on either sides of him reacted in two ways as he passed, either leaning up and peering out the bars to stare at Arthur as he passed - _the son of the king, here? _- or they ignored his presence with ugly sneers of disdain on their faces. Arthur found his feet being spat at more than once.

Then they stopped, the guard gesturing to a cell that looked oh so much like all the others, and Arthur glanced to the man for confirmation only once before stepping as close as he dared to the bars. The room inside was gross and dark, and Arthur could only just make out the thin, tall form that was lying on its stomach upon the wilting cot in the corner. He rolled his eyes, _of course _Merlin would be sleeping when he arrived to check on the boy. Could never show him a bit of respect, could he?

"Oi, Emrys. Wake up." Arthur said, his voice not a yell, but not too quiet either. The volume did its job though, as with a snuffle Merlin began to shift and awaken, his far too large grey prison uniform shifting with him. "You're keeping the Prince of Camelot here waiting, _Mer_lin, so get up already." Arthur snapped after another moment of waiting for the sorcerer to come to full awareness. Merlin jerked a bit at that, and the harsh tone of Arthur's voice, and finally - after a bit of floundering trying to get his hands beneath him - managed to sit himself up and turn on his cot to address his visitor.

Arthur's eyes were immediately drawn to Merlin's left wrist, the reason for his floundering, and noticed with a wince that the wristlet had not been removed. Merlin's arm was swollen and red on either side of the metal, with fat blisters lining the edges. Some of the blisters were cracked and black, and looked extremely painful. There was no way that Merlin would get out of having a scar, especially now that the burn had gone untreated and would go untreated for so long, without even the offending metal removed so as to let the undoubtedly bleeding skin beneath to _breathe._

"Sire." Merlin said, voice dry, moving his left wrist slowly - much like a wounded animal would move an injured paw - towards his chest in an attempt to shield it from Arthur's eyesight. Their eyes met once the General looked away from the gruesome injury, and for a few seconds of tense silence, Arthur forgot his reason for coming to talk to Merlin.

The guard shifted behind him, keys clanging together, and Arthur remembered.

"Leave us, please." He said, turning to the guard and gesturing the man away with a wave of his hand. The absence of the official would do little to stop what Arthur would next say from getting around - he was very much aware that many of the prisoners around them were not opposed to selling information to corrupt guards - but Arthur knew that Merlin would feel more comfortable speaking freely without the imposing presence looming just in his line of vision.

The guard looked at Arthur dubiously, but left as instructed, and instantly some of the tension in Merlin's shoulders drained away.

As soon as the door at the end of the hallway slammed shut, signalling the guard's complete and total absence, Merlin suddenly threw himself from the cot and towards the bars. His right hand gripped a bar tightly, knuckles turning white, and his left hand shot through the openings out towards Arthur. The General leapt backwards in shock, eyes wide at Merlin's rapid movements, when moments ago the boy had simply been sluggishly sitting up on a cot.

"Arthur," Merlin hissed urgently, left arm hanging outstretched in the air between them, burned skin visible in detail, "The magic in this- that made it burn- _it's the same fingerprint._"

Arthur blinked, mouth gaping slightly, trying to process the quick words that Merlin was whispering as if they had no time. He had come to see Merlin merely to check on his health, and let him know of the new sorcerer, and let him know that the team would continue to do everything in their power to catch the real murderer and exonerate Merlin's good name. Yet now, Arthur found himself being given a new bit of information that only confirmed what he had been discussing with his team the night Merlin was so brutally arrested. Merlin had been vigilant, as Arthur had instructed him to be, and he had come up with results.

_The killer is in the military, and now it goes without saying that whoever it is that set up or had contact with the wristlet before Merlin put it on_ is _that killer. We're one step closer now._

Without thinking, Arthur clasped Merlin's left hand in both of his, holding the trembling limb steady. "Quiet." He said seriously, "Quiet- Anything you say can and will be used against you, Merlin. No doubt this hallway and your cell are not free of monitoring devices either." Merlin's eyes were wide, but thankfully he did not react as if what Arthur telling him was something he hadn't realized. Arthur nodded and squeezed the thin hand in his own a bit tighter, and Merlin sucked in a sharp breath of pain, but Arthur did not let go.

Merlin breathed through his teeth until he could speak again, "Don't trust anyone with magic right now, okay? Don't risk it." Arthur could see how much it obviously pained Merlin to tell him that, how telling him to distrust magic, distrust the thing Merlin strived to make welcome in the world, was hurting him. He nodded once, decisively, and then slowly began to let go of Merlin's hand.

"So I'm guessing that trusting your replacement with this info is a no-go then?" Arthur said with a slight quirk of his lips as Merlin pulled his arm back into his chest, hoping to slip in the info he had originally come to relay as well as lighten the mood a bit. Though truly, while standing with bars between them, there was hardly any hope for the mood.

"Replacement?" Merlin said, looking hurt and accusing all at once. Arthur sighed.

"The King himself placed him with our team, since the spot for a sorcerer is currently vacant. As soon as you're back though," he wished for a moment that Merlin had not retracted his hand, so that he might be able to grasp it again to reassure the sorcerer of his place on their team and in their family, "as soon as you're back, the kid will have to find a new spot to fill."

Merlin smiled slightly, but his face was still pale, and his eyes far away with thought, "Yeah, don't trust him." He brushed the fingers of his uninjured hand across the metal on his left arm, only flinching slightly at the magic that traveled through them at the touch. Merlin turned his attention back to Arthur, "What's his name?"

"Mordred Camlann." Arthur answered, to which Merlin responded with a nod and a hum of thought.

"Yes, definitely don't trust him."

Their conversation was left at that. The guard entered through the door at the far end of the hallway then, and Merlin pulled away from the bars. Arthur had been unable to verbally reassure Merlin that he would catch the killer, but as he left his friend behind, Arthur had a feeling that Merlin knew, and that Merlin had faith.

* * *

Arthur found himself next, against all better judgement, going to Guinevere's home. He knew, deep down, that he should've avoided the small apartment, and yet as he stared at the door, he found himself knocking before he could stop himself. Gwen alone opened the door - Elyan most likely either at the command center or running errands for his still shaken sister - with a smile on her face, despite her sunken, sad eyes. The smile dropped when she saw Arthur.

"Guinevere, I'm sorry for showing up unannounced-" Arthur spluttered, suddenly unable to explain his presence to the woman he had once - and probably still was - madly in love with. He couldn't explain it away as concern for her wellbeing, after all, wouldn't he have showed up earlier if his reason was that? He couldn't use questioning her as a reason, that was cruel and dismissive and she had already been questioned anyways. He supposed that truly, he was there for him. After seeing Merlin in such a state, and after the whirlwind of events that had happened to his team so very recently, Arthur supposed he needed the calming force that was Guinevere Smith in his life again - if only for a moment.

Gwen's face softened as she saw his inner turmoil play out in his eyes - he had always been like an open book to her - and she stepped aside wordlessly to allow Arthur entrance. The General coughed and cut himself off, then nodded as he awkwardly entered. Gwen shut the door behind him with a faint, if sad, smile.

"So, how are you holding up?" Arthur questioned, throat dry, after a moment of silence. The two of them were standing just inside the small hallway that led from the door to the rest of the apartment, with Gwen having wrapped her arms around herself and Arthur having nothing to do with his own except let them hang at his sides.

She shrugged, lips parting for a moment as if to offer some words of reassurance to the man before her, but then gave up. Anything that she said would be a lie, and he knew it. "Why are you here Arthur?" Gwen said instead, honestly curious. She and Arthur had not interacted much aside from that moment in the alley and all the moments after since their agreement to not pursue a romantic relationship, which both she and he deeply regretted. As to why he was here, now, seeking solace in her frazzled, paranoid presence, was a mystery to Gwen.

"I went to see Merlin." Arthur blurted out instead. For a moment, Gwen didn't react, but then her eyes filled with remembrance and recognition of the name - and then with horror.

"What do you mean you _went to see him_- what happened? Is he hurt- did he get hurt when Lancelot-" She cut herself off with a gasp, dark brown fingers threading themselves shut over her mouth, and she looked to Arthur in hope that he would dismiss her fears.

Oh- Arthur realized as he quickly moved to sooth Gwen - That was right, Gwen had heard of Lancelot's untimely death, but it seemed that no one had thought it worth it to worry her more with news of Merlin's arrest. "Gwen, he's okay- He's just," Arthur found his hands on Gwen's shoulders, and he had no idea how he had gotten so close to her. Those wide brown eyes were staring up at him imploringly, and so he continued speaking, "He's been arrested. The King thinks that Merlin is the murderer."

Immediately, Gwen's expression morphed to disbelief- and even a touch of anger could be seen in the way her eyebrows pulled sharply down, "But that's ridiculous- He's not! _I_ know he's not!" She said, in reference to the fact that she was the team's one and only true witness at the moment. Arthur nodded, hoping to close the can of worms he had opened with that quick gesture, but Gwen began to tremble in his grip, "How could the king- How could he even think that it's Merlin?! Merlin seemed so nice- and he doesn't match the murderer's height or stance _at all._ That's ridiculous- completely-" She froze, suddenly and frighteningly, then, and Arthur gripped Gwen a little tighter. For a breathless minute that felt more like an hour, Gwen stared oddly into space through Arthur's chest, before she snapped back to herself with a shuddering gasp. "Doesn't match…" Gwen's gaze shot upwards to Arthur, and the General found himself cursing any god that would let itself be cursed. Today was just the day of new, groundbreaking information being given to him with no build up, wasn't it? Fantastic. "Arthur-" Gwen said, voice changing from the panicked tone it had held earlier to an almost conspiratorial hiss, much like Merlin's voice had sounded when he had told Arthur of the traces of magic in the wristlet matching the "fingerprint" of the killer. "-Merlin's _voice_ doesn't match either."

Arthur instantly snapped into a professional mindset, and he let his hands slide from Gwen's shoulders to grip her much smaller hands within his own. "Voice, what do you mean? Do you mean that you've remembered what the killer sounded like?"

The team and the professionals down in charge of questioning witnesses had had a tough time getting anything useful from Gwen, as it soon became apparent that the magical beheader had used some kind of spell to blur all clear images of their face and distort all that they had said that Gwen would remember. The fact that she was remembering a voice now, after more than a week, filled Arthur with hope that perhaps the magic was wearing off with time. Merlin perhaps would've been better suited to confirming that hope, but alas, Arthur thought bitterly, Merlin was currently otherwise occupied.

Gwen nodded, eyes wide, and leaned in close to Arthur, "The voice- I- Oh Arthur!" she wailed, face crumpling, and pushed her forehead into the General's chest. How long had it been since they had last been close like this? "I must be wrong- the memory still must not be distorted. I-"

"Shh, Shhh Guinevere. Tell me what you're thinking." Arthur attempted to sooth, his hands still holding hers awkwardly between them.

Gwen shook her head against Arthur's chest, "No- It's not- I cannot be-"

"Gwen," He never used her nickname, never, the shortening of 'Gwen' had never been able to do her beauty justice in Arthur's mind, "Please, tell me. For Merlin at least?" He dare not mention Lancelot, but Merlin needed this information to vindicate him just as much.

That last push was all it took, and Gwen's head shaking came to a stop. Arthur feared her breathing had as well. "It- It sounded like _Morgana_."

* * *

_Click._

"_They suspect."_

"_..." _

"_What should I do?"_

"_I guess you can start to have some fun."_

"_Wonderful."_

"_Don't reveal yourself just yet though."_

"_Oh of course not. But it won't be long now."_

_Click._


	13. 13

**AN: okay! Here's chapter 13. _After this I'm afraid I'm going to take a short break from this story, as this chapter is where my outline for the plot ends._ I've got a rough idea of where I want the story to go and what key points I want to hit upon, but until I get it scripted out everything's gonna be put on ice. I also want to do more research on military workings and ranks and teams and things like that. I've realized that my story is horribly inaccurate, and I would like to amend that by adding in more detail to the story in later chapters that will hopefully set everything straight. Howeveeeeeer I am also planning to fill the small break in this story with a few oneshots in a "slice of life" style from this AU! It'll hopefully fill the void a bit until I get crackin on posting more for KYHD once again. **

**ALSO - Thank you everyone who has reviewed, and favorited, and followed this story so far. It really truly means a ton to me, and wow, hearing all your responses to each chapter has just been great. This story and the reception it's been getting has definitely helped me to get back into the swing of writing fanfiction, and I'm not about to disappear again! Thank you!**

**Responses to reviews from Chapter 12:**

_**EasilyDistractedBookworm - hahahHA yes i am laughing at your pain :D and yes, I know, I love Morgana too- sorry hehe. Thanks!**_

_**merlinfan42 - the click was actually supposed to be the click of a phone being picked up off the hook and then put back down. Sorry that that was unclear! and ahhh Gaius. Don't worry, he shall appear! He won't be coming to Merlin's aid in prison though, unfortunately. Merlin's just gonna have to live with that open burn for a little bit longer. Thanks for the review!**_

_**shelle-ma-belle - yeP you called it **_

_**Said the Liar 13 - hate until proven lovable as they say - actually, no one says that. haha - and yep, only timeee will teeell~ Thank you so much for reviewing and enjoying!**_

_**Africanvintage - ahhhh is driving to the main parts a good thing or a bad thing? i'm always so constantly worried i don't pace well in my stories. I suppose that that will only get better the more I write though /shrug/ thank you so much for reviewing!**_

_**DarkMousyRulezAll - flghtghohh i have noTHinG to say to you that i havnt already said - thank you so much though amiko for reviewing and enjoying and ahhhh thanks**_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or any of the FMA elements I am using in this story!**

**WARNING:  none for this chapter!  
**

_** ALSO! here's a link to a sketch of what the uniforms kinda look like - at least the top halves of them - just remove the parentheses and add a . com between tumblr and /post-** _(machina-rex).(tumblr) post/93932421432/quick-sketchy-ref-of-the-uniform-worn-in-a-thing

* * *

13: _Slipping and Falling_

Impossible.

It _couldn't _be Morgana.

Arthur would've suspected his _father _before he would have suspected Morgana - which, in light of recent events wasn't a very convincing comparison, but it would have to do.

There were facts that didn't add up - loose ends and dead ends and complete holes of information. Like the fact that Morgana absolutely did _not _have magic. Arthur had known her nearly his entire life, and if she had possessed any kind of magical ability, then certainly _he_ would've been the first to know. Not to mention, Morgana had no _motive. _She had no drive or connection to anyone or anything that would lead her to start walking around Camelot at night chopping off heads.

The General shuffled another set of useless papers - _tax records _- aside, barely blinking as he continued to surreptitiously search through Morgana's desk. She had no motive, and so he would prove it. Morgana always made sure to lock each and every drawer of her desk up nice and tight before leaving the office each night, but that really was no obstacle for a man determined to stick within his own denial. Uther had copies of each and every key to each and every desk used by his highest ranking officers, and so Arthur had simply _borrowed _them from his father for the night.

The keys would return to their rightful place the next morning, with everything in place as it was. No one would even know he had been there at all.

Arthur growled as he replaced the stack of records back into its drawer where it belonged, quietly sliding the wood back into place and locking it tightly once more before moving on to the drawer below. His clear, plastic gloves slipped against the metal of the key as he worked to slide it in. What he was doing was highly illegal, _highly_, especially for a high ranking officer such as himself. Arthur knew that if he were to be caught, it'd be the end of his career and quite possibly all of his men's careers as well. His father would not be as lenient with him as he had been when the round table room had been discovered, this much Arthur knew. And yes, the king had been lenient. The fact that Arthur wasn't prone to such techniques - snooping for evidence, of all things! He wasn't even in Intelligence. This wasn't even his _job._ It had been Lancelot's - and would "never do it again" would not work as a viable excuse to keep his name clean.

The key clicked within the lock, and carefully Arthur slid the drawer open. The drawer was the bottommost one on the left side, the final drawer before Arthur could move onto the right side of the desk. Within it were more records, more papers with scribbled notes. As put together as Morgana seemed on the outside, judging by the contents of her desk thus far, she wasn't as organized on the inside as she liked people to believe. Arthur snickered at the thought of his cold eyed sister hastily jamming any paper in to any drawer, before fixing her hair and smiling at whoever had come in to see the king. He felt no qualms smiling at the image he had made up in his mind, after all, the little unguarded bits of Morgana such as that reminded Arthur that she was still human. That what Gwen had said and Merlin had alluded and that Lancelot had caught onto _couldn't _be true, because Morgana was still just human.

The drawer proved to be useless - or rather, for Arthur's case, use_ful_ - and he slid it shut with a bit more force than was safe. The papers within shuffled in the aftershock, and Arthur froze for only a moment before clicking the key in, locking it up, and then sliding himself on his knees over to the right side of the desk. The underside and space where Morgana's legs typically went would need to be looked over as well, for any hidden drawers or compartments. Since Morgana was _innocent_, those places would likely only hold files on some of the king's dealings that would make conspiracy theorists go mad, but that Arthur could care less for at the moment.

The top drawer on the right held nothing of use to Arthur.

Second drawer, the same.

The third drawer, the bottom most drawer, held nothing as well. Arthur breathed out a sigh of relief as he pushed it closed, taking a moment to rest back on his calves before he had to crouch beneath the desk for his final sweep. The darkened wood the desk was made of did not look very inviting, but after another huffed out breath, Arthur reluctantly placed his hands on the floor and crawled his way into the open leg space. He bumped the top of his head against the underside of the desk only once, hunched downward with a wince, and then slid forward a few inches more until he was fully beneath Morgana's desk. He gently tapped around the low top with his gloved fingers, finding no indications of hollow spaces or slide together panels. He moved to the back, and tapped around there, finding nothing as well. He tapped on the left side, and stiffened.

Unknown to Arthur who had shifted all of his focus to somehow getting into the secret compartment, the door of the office clicked open almost silently, and closed behind whoever had entered just as quietly.

He pressed his fingers to the panel that hid the hollow space, and gently slid it aside with only a soft whisper of wood on wood. The cover was thin, and moved effortlessly out of the way to reveal a hidden shelf in the front part of the left hand side of the desk, a shelf that held a stack of crisp white papers and thick envelopes. Arthur's hands did not tremble as he picked up the top papers and glanced over them with slightly glazed eyes.

Correspondence. What he held in his hands were correspondence notes. Arthur had seen notes like these drop on his desk after Leon had been off doing something with Communications, or after a mission he and his team had had to use radios and communication on. They relayed word-for-word what had been said over a phone line or recorded radio conversation, and were necessary for security reasons, necessary because it was always better to have things in writing rather than just as recorded words or faded memories. He shoved those aside, not wanting to look too close after he had caught Lancelot's name, still wanting to cling to denial despite the evidence that was now roughly slapping him in the face. _Now_, his hands were starting to tremble. He picked up the next thing on the stack, an envelope, with a stamp of a single serpent in wax on the top and curled letters in the corner that spelled out in what might've well been blood, _From the desk of Queen Morgause of Essetir_

Arthur placed the notes back into the compartment, and then sat back on his calves beneath the desk. He was hunched and cramped in the small space, but it didn't constrict his ability to think at all. _This_ was what Lancelot had caught onto after Merlin's little angsty spill in which he complained about the Queen of Essetir and how she kept her own kind in chains. Morgana and Morgause somehow had a connection to each other, and Lancelot had caught onto it, and Lancelot hadn't been careful enough. So Morgana - who was the murderer _all along _even though Arthur _still_ could see no motive other than whatever was being talked about between her and Morgause, still couldn't see how his sister, _his own sister_, could do this to _their_ country - had decided that Lancelot was better off dead, and had-

"General Pendragon?"

The General startled, back uncurling as he tried to maneuver instinctively into a close combat ready position, and yet he only succeeded in banging his head spectacularly on the underside of the desk. Nevermind trying to close the secret compartment he had discovered, someone had _caught him_, and as Arthur crawled out from under the desk his mind was whirring at a mile a minute trying to make up an excuse to get him out of the messy situation he had found himself in.

If word somehow got back to Morgana that he had been snooping around under her desk, and had _found something_, well, Arthur knew with no uncertainty that he'd end up just like Lancelot.

Or maybe, Arthur thought - suddenly feeling sick as he continued to move even though it felt like time had slowed around him - maybe he'd end up like Merlin. Framed and stripped of his rank and locked up in jail because he'd gotten too close and was too dangerous to be left roaming free, but too important to kill. That was why Merlin was in jail and Lancelot wasn't. Morgana still had some use for the poor boy who had stumbled his way onto Arthur's team not all too long ago. Morgana had known Lancelot as a friend, and had barely known Merlin at all, and Gwen - _oh Gwen_. How far would this monster that Arthur had thought he had known go to achieve whatever goal she and Morgause had?

He kept his thoughts from showing on his face as he stood and locked eyes with Mordred Camlann, who was standing just beside the chair that Arthur had pushed aside when he had initially crawled under the desk. Arthur straightened his back and stared the younger, lower ranking officer down, trying to seem like he had an absolutely logical excuse for as to why he was beneath the King's Secretary's desk.

Wait- why the hell was Mordred there in the first place?

"_Yes, definitely don't trust him." _Merlin had said. And yet surely this boy - who Arthur _knew_ had had no contact with Morgana at all, as his transfer had been requested in person by the King, and then carried out by whoever had been the sorcerer's previous commanding officer - could not be involved in the entire long plot that Arthur was just beginning to see unravel before his eyes, and yet still did not understand. Mordred hadn't even _been_ in Camelot at the time of the first couple murderers - the ones that had happened before the writing on the wall - as he had been up further north dealing with whatever squabble amongst magic and non-magic folk that had required the fresh blood of a new Court Sorcerer. Arthur knew this. He had been given all of Mordred's records and notes on his previous assignments when he had joined Arthur's team. There was no way Mordred was involved.

Despite this reassurance, Arthur proceeded cautiously none the less, "What are you doing here Major?"

Mordred's expression did not change, remaining an odd blank slate of observation as he responded, "I had been walking by and heard a sound, I was worried that someone was trying to break into the King's office."

Arthur's red flags went up. He had been quieter than he could ever remember himself being - aside from the moment he had bumped his head. Perhaps that had been what his sorcerer had heard, if Mordred was being truthful. Still, it was a stretch. Nevermind why the sorcerer was in the building this late after hours.

He pointed his finger into the young soldier's face, feeling pleased as that mask finally melted and Mordred looked merely confused and somewhat fearful. _As he damn well should, _"You saw nothing, got it Major? If you wanna be any help on this case and if you wanna keep your rank, _you saw nothing._"

Mordred said nothing, but after a moment he nodded, quietly, keeping his odd, clear blue eyes fixed upon Arthur. Arthur felt a chill go down his spine. He always felt unsettled whenever Mordred was around, whether in the team office or if they bumped into each other anywhere else. The boy always looked so intent on whatever it was he was thinking about, and yet he seemed creepily aware of his surroundings at the same time. There was a distinct air of _wrongness _that followed Mordred Camlann like a cloud, and Arthur knew it couldn't be a sorcerer thing, because Merlin had always given off a warm, kind, if somewhat cheeky and proud, air. Gwaine had taken to Merlin easily, as had the rest of the team, as had Arthur, and yet when Gwaine had first encountered Mordred he had forced every smile.

"Good." Arthur hissed, lowering his finger and turning to duck back under the desk and slide the compartment back in place. As soon as he did so though, Mordred spoke up.

"Would it be alright for me to ask the same of you, sir?"

Arthur hesitated, and tilted his head to look over his shoulder. A steady buzz built up in his ears, and in the eerie light of the moon that was filtering in through the windows, he felt very much like a victim in a horror film.

"What are you-?"

"You saw nothing, Arthur Pendragon. Nothing."

Mordred's eyes flared a dull green-gold, and the buzzing in Arthur's head popped. Or rather, it exploded, crescendoing into a burst that made Arthur feel as if he had just been launched into space without any kind of suit or oxygen. The buzz then faded steadily, taking his awareness and consciousness with it.

* * *

Merlin jolted awake on his small jail-cell cot, unsure of what had awoken him. He breathed deeply once, and then looked up just in time to see a dark shadow descend upon him like a predator descends on its prey.


End file.
